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Catalysts for Environmentally Benign Organic Reactions in Water
EPA Grant Number: R826120Title: Catalysts for Environmentally Benign Organic Reactions in Water
Investigators: RajanBabu, T. V.
Institution: Ohio State University - Main Campus
EPA Project Officer: Karn, Barbara
Project Period: November 1, 1997 through October 31, 2000 (Extended to November 16, 2001)
Project Amount: $280,000
RFA: Technology for a Sustainable Environment (1997)
Research Category: Pollution Prevention/Sustainable Development
Description:
Water is the most ubiquitous solvent and the innumerable reactions that sustain life proceeds with miraculous efficiency in this medium. Yet, the use of man-made catalysts that promote organic reactions in water is at its infancy. This proposal deals with research directed towards the development of new and highly selective homogeneous transition metal catalysts for carbon-carbon and carbon-hydrogen bond forming reactions. Such catalysts will be used to explore the potential advantages of homogeneously catalyzed processes run in water. These are: (a) ease of recovery of the catalyst in cases where the product is organic soluble and the reaction is run in a biphasic medium; (b) selective functionalization of water-soluble biomolecules; (c) in selected instances, increased selectivity and catalytic activity. The applicability of these catalysts for activation and fixation of abundantly available materials such as CO, H2, simple olefins, CO2 will be explored. Approach:We plan to use abundantly available carbohydrates as a source of scaffolding for the preparation of ligands. Advantages of carbohydrate-derived ligands for transition metals could be two-fold: in general, carbohydrates are the cheapest, most abundantly available, water-soluble natural products and they are chiral. Based on our previous work, we expect the carbohydrate-derived ligands to deliver high selectivity (including enantioselectivity) in a variety of important reactions such as hydrogenation, hydroformylation and hydrocyanation, all of which are highly efficient reactions that utilize feed stock starting materials. We expect to derive very high value from this chemistry. Expected Results:
We hope to develop a set of efficient catalysts capable of carrying out C-C and C-H bond-forming reactions in water. Since the emphasis is on achieving high selectivity in the incorporation of feed stock materials, there is significant potential for minimization of byproducts. These important implications for cleaner manufacturing technologies for the production of organic intermediates will be illustrated with specific examples of the synthesis of natural and unnatural amino acids, and widely used antiinflammatory aryl propionic acids. Publications and Presentations:
Publications have been submitted on this project: View all 22 publications for this project
Journal Articles:Journal Articles have been submitted on this project: View all 12 journal articles for this project
Supplemental Keywords:green chemistry, clean technologies, innovative technology, waste minimization, environmentally conscious manufacturing, pharmaceutical industry. , Sustainable Industry/Business, Scientific Discipline, RFA, Technology for Sustainable Environment, Sustainable Environment, Chemical Engineering, cleaner production/pollution prevention, Environmental Chemistry, environmentally benign water cycles, cleaner production, catalysts, green chemistry, ligands, carbon bond formation, environmentally conscious manufacturing, green process systems, hydrogeneration, SIC = pharmaceutical , transition metal catalysts
Progress and Final Reports:
1999 Progress Report
2000 Progress Report
Final Report