74
S.H. Seo et al. / Journal of Fluorine Chemistry 94 (1999) 73±78
2. Experimental
3. Results and discussion
2.1. Reagents
It has been reported that an aldehyde is able to function as
a hydrogen donor even though it is only used in limited
reactions [12,13]. Aromatic aldehydes and DMF serve as
hydrogen donors and transfer their formyl hydrogen to a, b-
unsaturated ketones in the presence of RuCl2(PPh3)3. Coor-
dination of formaldehyde on a metal center has been a
primary goal in metal-catalyzed C1 chemistry and Fischer±
Tropsch reactions [14]. With this in mind, we have carried
out the transfer hydrogenolysis reaction of CFC-113a with
aldehydes in a stainless steel reactor hoping to ®nd a better
process for the preparation of HCFC-123. Contrary to our
assumption of no catalysis by a reactor, we found that the
reaction of CFC-113a with aldehydes in THF produced
HCFC-123 even in the absence of catalysts. However, a
much slower reaction rate was observed when the reaction
was performed in a glass-lined pressure reactor even though
large excess of aldehydes were employed. After many trials,
we found that the stainless steel reactor itself is responsible
for the catalysis. Since the stainless steel is known to contain
iron, nickel, and chromium, we have conducted the transfer
hydrogenolysis reaction using these metals as catalysts. The
reaction did not proceed at all in benzene, unlike in THF,
indicating that the solvent is playing an important role in the
catalysis. In order to ®nd out the role of solvent, deuterium
labeling experiments were carried out in the presence of
metal and aldehyde. No scrambled products were obtained
both in the reaction employing DMF-d7/THF and one with
DMF/THF-d8 and slight reduction of the reaction rate was
caused by addition of a radical initiator such as AIBN
(azobisisobutylnitrile; up to 0.2 equivalent to aldehyde)
effectively excluding the possibility of a radical mechanism
in these reactions. In the reactions employing deuterated
compounds CF3CHCl2 or CF3CDCl2 were produced as a
main hydrogenated product in over 98% yield along with a
small amount of CF3CH2Cl or CF3CD2Cl showing that
protons in THF, not in aldehydes, actually replaced the
chlorines of CFC-113a. Such a high selectivity to CF3CHCl2
or CF3CDCl2 was attributed mainly to lower reactivity of
CF3CHCl2 than that of CF3CCl3 as mentioned elsewhere
[2]. H/D exchange between THF and DMF-d7 in the pre-
sence of metal catalysts was found to be negligible. In
MeOH, several side products were produced as reported
elsewhere [3]. Neither Brùnsted (HCl) nor Lewis acids
(AlCl3) altered the reaction rate and selectivity. However,
bases such as triethylamine and triphenylphosphines
depressed the reaction rate considerably. These results
may show that direct protonation from the hydrogen source
material does not occur or at least this step is not important
(HCl), and polarization of the C±Cl bond in the substrate
induced by AlCl3 does not occur effectively. The effect of
bases on the reaction rate might be attributed to the pre-
ferential coordination of bases on the surface of a metal
catalyst by effectively blocking the active sites where
activation of C±H bonds of the hydrogen source compounds
Solvents were all reagent grade and were distilled from
appropriate drying agents under a nitrogen atmosphere prior
to use. Other reagent grade chemicals were purchased from
Aldrich and used without further puri®cation. Fe (99.9%,
100±120 mm) and Ni (99.9%, 100±120 mm) powders were
purchased from Samchun. CFC-113a, obtained from the
rearrangement reaction of CFC-113 (Asahi Glass) with
AlCl3, was distilled under nitrogen before use.
2.2. Instrumentation
1H NMR spectra were recorded on a Bruker AM-250
spectrometer operating at 250.133 MHz. These spectra were
referenced to internal standard tetramethylsilane (TMS).
Gas chromatographic analyses were made on a Young-In
680D gas chromatography equipped with a ¯ame ionization
detector and a 6 ft long stainless steel column packed with
liquid methyl silicone on chrom-W. Mass spectral analyses
were carried out employing a HP 5890A GC/HP 5917A MS
detector equipped with a 30 m-long capillary column
packed with liquid methyl silicone.
2.3. Kinetic study
Generally, in a 200 ml stainless steel high pressure reactor
®tted with a glass liner, 5.33Â10 2 mol of CFC-113a, 1 g of
n-hexane, 100 ml of THF and predetermined amounts of
catalysts and aldehydes were stirred magnetically at 908C
under 8 atm of He. Small amounts (ca. 1 ml) of samples
were taken every 30 min through a sampling port and
analyzed by gas chromatography. Between samplings, about
5 ml of fresh solution in the reactor was allowed to ¯ush the
sampling port. The observed 85% conversion rate was
determined by plotting the concentration of CFC-113a
versus time. The product composition was analyzed with
the use of internal standard, n-hexane. Plots of the kinetic
data were ®tted using a conventional linear regression
program (Microcal Origin version 4.10).
2.4. NMR tube experiment
Inside a dry box, mixed solvents [THF/DMF-d7 (DMF:
dimethylformamide,
volume
ratio1:1,
mole
ratio1.05:1), or THF/DMF-d7/CFC-113a (volume
ratio1:1:1, mole ratio1.05:1:0.65), or THF-d8/DMF/
CFC-113a (volume ratio1:1:1, mole ratio1.05:1:0.65)
(total volume2 ml)] and 5 mg of Fe or Ni powder were
placed in a 5 mm NMR tube equipped with a PTFE valve.
After the NMR tube was taken out of the dry box, it was
maintained at 908C in an oil bath for 2.5 h. The tube was
1
cooled down to room temperature for H NMR and MS
analyses.