The importance of heterogeneous catalytic methods in organic syntheses is growing dynamically. Among the methods developed the supported metal catalysts take up an outstanding role. In this paper the results of the research group obtained in this field are reviewed.
Keywords heterogeneous catalysis, supported metal catalysts, organic syntheses
IntroductionMost organic syntheses require a catalyst for good conversion. With the exception of heterogeneous oxidation and reduction, these catalysts are mostly acids or bases. The traditional acids and bases have several disadvantageous properties, they are often dangerous, flammable, corrosive, or toxic, the workup of the reaction mixture is often tedious, producing high amounts of waste water, and the catalyst often decomposes during the workup procedure. These compounds or even their preparation is often harmful for the environment. Therefore in recent decades the development of heterogeneous catalytic methods became one of the main synthetic goals. The heterogeneous catalysts can eliminate the problems arising from the use of a homogeneous catalyst; they can be filtered out from the reaction mixture, simplifying this way the workup procedure, reducing the energy costs and decreasing the operation time as well as the amount of waste water. They are generally non-corrosive, non-toxic and often reusable or simply recyclable materials, and in some cases they can induce a considerable regio-even stereoselectivity. There were several minerals found in nature which showed excellent catalytic avtivity in organic syntheses. Based on these materials numerous mineralbased heterogeneous catalysts were developed in recent years not only for laboratory but also for industrial use. Thus, e.g. in a review published in 1999 about the heterogeneous catalytic industrial processes, 71 methods were presented which used natural, modified or artificial zeolites [1].These materials can also serve as supports of different metals. The acidic or basic properties of the support, their great surface as well as the fine dispersity of the metal on the support's surface can significantly increase the efficiency of these catalysts. Furthermore, the ligands which are often required for a homogeneous catalytic process, can be omitted in the heterogeneous methods, which can increase the atom efficiency of the process and make the workup of the reaction mixture easier.