Design of polymer-based nanoreactors for efficient acid/base cascade catalysis: A comparative study of site isolation strategies

Abstract

Cascade catalysis carries out two or more consecutive catalytic reactions without separation and purification of intermediate products, which is of great significance in chemical production. Acid/base cascade catalysis in one-pot is widely studied, but it still faces great challenges due to the incompatibility of the two catalysts. In this study, three catalytic systems for acid/base cascade catalysis, the mixture of two separated acid and base micelles, acid and base isolated micelles with/without an intermediate cross-linking layer as catalytic nanoreactors were fabricated by utilizing RAFT polymerization technique respectively. Comparative study of the three site isolation strategies were carried out through investigating their catalytic activities for the deacetalization-Knoevenagel cascade reactions. The results disclosed that intermediate cross-linking layer of core-shell micelle could effectively hamper the contact of acid and base catalysts, presenting good catalytic activities. The study may provide new ideas and fabrication approaches for other cascade catalysis with incompatible catalysts.