Homogeneous catalysis is widely used to prepare polymers, intermediates, and pharmaceuticals. However, methodologies to separate such catalysts and/or their ligands from products are needed. Our group has explored a variety of greener, more efficient liquid/liquid and liquid/solid separation strategies that use phase selectively soluble polymeric materials. While these separations are efficient, some leaching of the catalyst into the product phase of a two-phase solvent system occurs. Here studies that use dyes as surrogate catalysts show how the use of oligomeric hydrocarbon polymers as additives or solvents minimizes leaching of polyisobutylene-bound catalysts. In these studies, low dispersity unfunctionalized and functionalized polyolefin oligomers are used to replace volatile hydrocarbon solvents in mixed solvent systems that form a biphasic mixture after a catalytic reaction. By using polyisobutylene-bound azo dyes as catalyst surrogates, we have been able to show that leaching of a polyisobutylene-bound material into the polar phase can be reduced with added hydrocarbon oligomers as cosolvents.

Polymeric antileaching agents that facilitate homogeneous catalysis

249th National Meeting (2015)

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