Rafael A. García-Muñoz

Synthesis of Helical and Supplementary Chirally Doped PMO Materials. Suitable Catalysts for Asymmetric Synthesis

Exciting helical mesoporous organosilicas including supplementary chirally doped moieties into their spiral walls were one-pot successfully synthesized with good structural order for, to the best of our knowledge, the first time. This one-step direct synthesis of helical chirally doped periodic mesoporous organosilica (PMO) materials was carried out by combination of a tartrate-based bis-organosilicon precursor with tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) and two surfactants, cetyltrimethylammonium bromide and perfluoroctanoic acid (CTAB and PFOA). For comparison purposes, a conventional two-step postsynthetic grafting methodology was carried out. In this method, the chiral tartrate-based moieties were grafted onto the helical silica mesoporous materials previously prepared by the dual-templating approach (CTAB and PFOA). The chirally doped materials prepared by both methodologies exhibited helical structure and high BET surface area, pore size distributions, and total pore volume in the range of mesopores. Solid-state (13)C and (29)Si MAS NMR experiments confirmed the presence of the chiral organic precursor in the silica wall covalently bonded to silicon atoms. Nevertheless, one-pot direct synthesis led to a greater control of surface properties and presented larger incorporation of organic species compared with the two-step postsynthetic methodology. To further prove the potential feasibility of these materials in enantiomeric applications, Mannich diastereoselective asymmetric synthesis was chosen as catalytic test. In the case of the one-pot PMO material, the rigidity of the chiral ligand backbone provided by its integration into the inorganic helical wall in combination with the steric impediments supplied by the twisted geometry led to the reagents to adopt specific orientations. These geometrical constrictions resulted in an outstanding diastereomeric induction toward the preferred enantiomer.

Effect of hierarchical porosity in Beta zeolites on the Beckmann rearrangement of oximes

Hierarchical Beta zeolites with different Si/Al molar ratios, synthesized by crystallization of silanized protozeolitic units, were investigated in the liquid-phase Beckmann rearrangement of cyclohexanone and cyclododecanone oximes. The hierarchical Beta samples contain mesopores with sizes in the range 2.0–6.0 nm, as well as the typical zeolite micropores, showing a great contribution of the mesopore/external surface area (300–328 m2 g−1) to the BET surface area (706–763 m2 g−1) and increased Lewis acidity compared to conventional Beta zeolites. Diffusional and steric limitations were found to strongly influence the oxime Beckmann rearrangement as enhanced conversions were obtained with the hierarchical Beta zeolites. The largest differences between conventional and hierarchical Beta zeolites were denoted with the bulkier oxime, i.e. in the rearrangement of cyclododecanone oxime. In this case, two stages are clearly observed in the evolution of the oxime conversion along the reaction time, with a plateau being reached at long reaction times due to deactivation by product inhibition. Hierarchical Beta zeolites exhibited superior performance in both stages compared to reference samples. These results indicate that the use of hierarchical Beta zeolites for oxime Beckmann rearrangement leads to significant improvements in the catalytic behavior compared to conventional Beta samples due to a number of factors: faster intracrystalline diffusion, availability of non-sterically hindered mesopore/surface area and lower deactivation through product inhibition.