“New approach toward the synthesis of asymmetric heterogeneous catalysts for hydrogenation reactions”.

VIRGINIA VETERE; M. BELÉN FARAONI; GERARDO F. SANTORI; JULIO CESAR PODESTA; MONICA L. CASELLA; OSMAR A. FERRETTI

Paris, Francia

Congreso; 13th International Congress on Catalysis; 2004

Asymmetric heterogeneous hydrogenation of prochiral compounds has a great academic and applied importance due to the increasing demands of optically pure drugs, especially in areas related to environmental protection and health. However, a closer inspection of the literature reveals that there are only two families of synthetically useful heterogeneous asymmetric catalytic systems: i) Ni catalysts modified with tartrate/NaBr [1] and ii) Pt(Pd) modified with cinchona alkaloids [2]. In this work, a new type of asymmetric heterogeneous catalysts will be presented, together with some results obtained in the enantioselective hydrogenation of acetophenone and ethyl pyruvate. The catalysts are prepared by using techniques derived from the Surface Organometallic Chemistry on Metals (SOMC/M), that comprises the reaction between a supported and reduced transition metal catalyst with an organometallic compound [3]. Previously published papers, demonstrated that it was possible to anchor SnBu4 onto a Pt/SiO2 catalyst and to generate an organometallic phase (retaining Bu groups on the surface) with very interesting properties in the selective hydrogenation of carbonyl compounds [4].