Monique Lasperas

Design of Chiral Hybrid Organic-Inorganic Mesoporous Materials as Enantioselective Epoxidation and Alkylation Catalysts

The nineties have seen important advances in the synthesis of hybrid organicinorganic mesoporous materials based on the functionalization of the surface of new micelle-templated mineral oxides such as MCM-41 type silicates.1 The major advantages of these new supports are their large surface area, their regular system of monodisperse mesopores and homogeneity of chemical surface properties, which allow the preparation of well-defined mesoporous hybrid materials. Nevertheless, asymmetric catalysts grafted on supports are generally less enantioselective than their homogeneous counterparts. This chapter deals mainly with the design of more efficient supported catalysts using MCM-41-type silica for enantioselective epoxidation and C-C bond formation reactions. This design is based on control of the different modification steps in order to improve both catalytic dispersion and mineral surface coverage. Keeping these factors in mind, a new generation of catalysts can be prepared that display enantioselectivity equal to homogeneous catalysts.