A Cartridge System for Organometallic Catalysis: Sequential Catalysis and Separation Using Supercritical Carbon Dioxide to Switch Phases

Abstract

A judicious combination of an organometallic catalyst and workup with supercritical CO2 resulted in a recyclable system for mediating a variety of transformations. Between reactions the catalyst is “switched off” and recovered as a precipitate from the reaction mixture when scCO2 is introduced. Simultaneously the product is isolated by extraction with scCO2. The key is the unique solubility properties of the Rh catalyst arising from the poly(ethyleneglycol) chains in the phosphine ligands (see scheme).