Recent advances in liquid-phase organic reactions using heteropolyacid and clay

Abstract

ecent advances in liquid-phase organic reactions over solid acids are described based on the catalyses of acidic clays and silica-included heteropoly compounds. Zinc ion-exchanged smectite clays, particularly nontronite clays, were effectively applied as insoluble, readily recoverable solid acid catalysts to liquid-phase Friedel-Crafts reactions. Montmorillonite K10 catalyzes the synthesis of alkylporphyrin derivatives from aliphatic aldehydes and pyrroles more efficiently than the conventional homogeneous acids such as BF3 etherate. 12-Tungstophosphoric acid and its acidic Cs salt could be included in a silica matrix by means of sol-gel technique involving hydrolysis of ethyl orthosilicate forming insoluble and easily separable solid acid catalysts. These silica-included heteropoly compounds were thermally more stable than an ion-exchange resin catalyst such as Amberlyst-15, and catalyzed the hydrolysis of ethyl acetate in the liquid phase more efficiently than the resin, H-ZSM-5 and even than aqueous heteropolyacid.