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W.J. Tenn III et al. / Catalysis Communications 12 (2011) 1323–1327
application, [3] and in particular, their application in flow reactors, is
the leaching of the active material from the support. Thus, an impor-
tant point to be determined is the amount of catalyst that is leached
from the support under reaction conditions.
variable speed stirrer motor was adapted with a larger pulley to permit
stirring speeds in excess of 1000 rpm for optimal gas entrainment.
The reactor had facilities for both gas and liquid sampling while in
operation. In a typical experiment, the reactor was charged with the
catalyst precursor dicarbonylacetylacetonato rhodium(I) (~12 mg), the
supported ligand (~100 mg), and solvent (100 mL) inside a glove-box
under nitrogen. The reactor was then sealed, removed from the glove-
box, mounted to heating/agitation system inside a fume hood, pressure
tested with inert gas, and then heated to the desired temperature
(typically 100 °C). From a 1:1:1 cylinder of ethylene, hydrogen, carbon
monoxide the pressure was increased to the desired level (either 10 atm
or 2 atm) and then nitrogen is added to the system to increase the total
pressure to 34 atm. The 1:1:1 feed cylinder was connected to a Brooks
mass-flow-controller operating as a flow-meter which maintained
the pressure at 34 atm by introducing make-up feed gas to the reactor.
Analysis of the headspace of the reactor was performed before and after
each run to quantitate the amount of ethane formed. The liquid phase of
the reactor was sampled at 0, 15, 30, 60, 90, and 120 min for analysis
with 1 mL samples. Analysis of the liquid phase products of each reac-
tion was carried-out on a Hewlett-Packard 6890 GC equipped with a
methyl-silicone gum capillary column, a flame-ionization detector,
and quantitated using a calibration curve. Typically, only propanal
and the tetraglyme solvent were observed in analyses. The rate of
propanal formation was calculated using the GC analysis of the liquid
phase, and/or the rate of feed consumption through the flow-meter.
The rhodium content of the solutions after the catalytic reactions
was determined by flame atomic absorption spectroscopy. Swelling
volume was determined in a graduated cylinder by recording the
volume of a given quantity of dry resin and then measuring the
expansion of the resin in an excess of toluene (or tetraglyme), after 3
hours at ambient temperature.
The type of phosphinated supports used in this investiga-
tion are lightly cross-linked, macroporous, phosphine-functionalized
poly(styrene-co-divinylbenzene), Merrifield-type resins, and a phos-
phinated silica gel. These resins are insoluble, but able to swell sig-
nificantly in many organic solvent media. The phosphine loading
levels, surface area, pore volume, mesh size, amount of cross-linking,
and swelling volumes for the phosphinated supports are reported in
Table 1. Rhodium hydroformylation catalysts supported on functiona-
lized polymers have been studied since the early sixties [4]. These
resins represent the most widely investigated class of catalyst supports
used in studies of supported hydroformylation catalysts. They are com-
mercially available, are inert toward reaction conditions, and offer
ease of modification. Immobilization of a homogeneous catalyst on a
support can increase the catalyst lifetime, or range of operation of the
catalytic system. By binding the active component at particular sites
and preventing aggregation to larger metal units the system activity
may be maintained [5,6].
2
. Experimental
All of the phosphinated resins and silica utilized in this study were
purchased from commercial sources: triphenylphosphine, polymer-
bound (Aldrich), dicyclohexylphenylphosphine polymer-bound (Al-
drich), di(n-butyl)phenylphosphine, polymer-bound (EMD Chemicals),
benzyldiphenylphosphine, polymer-bound (Fluka), and 2-diphenyl-
phosphinoethyl-functionalized silica gel (Aldrich). The (acac)Rh(CO)
2
Rates are expressed in moles of aldehyde formed per mol of
catalyst per liquid volume within the reactor.
3
. Results
Each of the catalyst systems were evaluated at two sets of feed
partial pressures. In the first case, 3.4 atm partial pressures of each
ethylene, hydrogen, and carbon monoxide were charged to the
reactor, which accounted for 10.2 atm of the total 34 atm pressure on
the reactor. In the second, 0.7 atm each of ethylene, hydrogen, and
carbon monoxide accounting for 2.0 atm of the total 34 atm on the
reactor. The results of experiments at 3.4 atm and various process
conditions are presented in Fig. 1 and Table 2.
was purchased from Strem Chemical, and the solvents (tetraglyme
and propanal) from Aldrich. All reagents were stored inside a nitrogen
purged glove-box and used without further purification. The solvents
were stored over 4 Å molecular sieves.
These experiments were conducted in semi-batch mode in a
00 cm , high-pressure, stirred autoclave, from Parr Instrument Com-
pany (Model 4561). The reactor was equipped with baffles, a hollow
shaft/gas-entrainment impeller and was stirred at 1300 rpm to insure
thorough gas/liquid mixing during the reaction. The standard 1/8 hp
All of the catalysts were found to exhibit stable rates of propanal
formation over the course of each experiment (2–6 h). However,
studies to test for deactivation over longer periods were precluded
due to the semi-batch mode of operation. The rate was found to
be independent of ligand-to-rhodium ratios over the range studied
3
3
(
P/Rh~2–6). Although an excess of the supported ligand should not
Table 1
Properties of the phosphine-modified supports.
P-loading Mesh
mmol/g)
Cross link Pore
Surf. areab Swelling
2
a
(
(% DVB)
size (Å) (m /g)
factor
PS–Ph–PPh
PS–Ph–P(n–Bu)
PS–Ph–PCy
PS–Bz–PPh
2
3.2
100–200
100–200
50–100
200–400
200–400
2
1
1
2
–
–
–
2.0
3.3
2.9
1.2
–
2
0.66
1–2
2.5
–
–
2
–
–
2
–
–
Si–Et–PPh
2
0.7
60
500
a
The swelling factor is the volume of the swollen resin divided by the volume of the
equivalent amount of the dry resin. Determined in toluene after 3 h; no swelling in
tetraglyme was observed after 3 h.
b
Measurement of the dry-state surface area of the resins was attempted by BET, but
the results were not quantifiable due to the ultra-low surface areas, as expected with
the gel-type morphology [7].
Fig. 1. Formation of propanal with time using rhodium with supported ligands: 34 atm
of feed, with 3.4 atm of each CO, H , and C . T=100 °C, stirring rate=1300 rpm.
2
2 4
H