This study presents the isomerization of a variety of alkenes utilizing dodecanethiolate-capped Pd nanoparticles employing a microwave reactor. Sodium borohyride is selected as a source of hydrogen gas. The results indicate that microwave energy in conjunction with low heat provides an effective means for the isomerization in terms of yield, specificity, and reaction time. In the case of 3-methylpent-1-ene, a reaction time of 10 min with the temperature at 40 �C yields ~95% conversion to 3-methylpent-2-ene. The reactions of 1-pentene and 1-octene also results in similar rates of conversion and specificity. For isoprenol, a reaction time of 10 minutes with the temperature at 50 �C yields ~46% conversion to prenol. This is more efficient than the presently known isomerization of isoprenol, which takes 100 hours of reaction time at temperature of 60-100 �C to produce a 61% yield.This study shows in general that Pd nanoparticles with high organic percentages and smaller core diameters display higher catalytic efficiencies. Furthermore, the characterization of Pd nanoparticles by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and 1H NMR prior to and after the reaction is done to study the effect of microwave irradiation on the overall stability of nanoparticle catalysts. Visual clues and the resulting yields suggest that the nanoparticles tend to aggregate and become less effective as catalysts with higher temperature.

Microwave-assisted isomerization of terminal alkenes catalyzed by alkanethiolate-capped Pd nanoparticles

243rd National Meeting (2012)

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