Discovery of novel catalytic materials for emissions control using high throughput scanning mass spectrometry.

High-throughput approaches were applied to the discovery of more efficient catalysts for various applications in emissions control. The screening approach was based on a hierarchy of qualitative or semi-quantitative primary screens for discovery of hits and quantitative secondary screens for confirmation and scale-up of leads. In this work, primary screening was carried out by fast scanning mass spectrometry (SMS) for NO(x) abatement, low temperature CO oxidation, VOC removal, CO(x) methanation and the water gas shift (WGS) reaction.

Productive utilization of chlorobenzene: palladium-catalyzed selective oxidation of alcohols.

[reaction: see text] The palladium/ligand-catalyzed activation of chlorobenzene provides a general, efficient, and functional group friendly method for the selective oxidation of alcohols to carbonyl compounds.

Palladium/P,O-Ligand-Catalyzed Suzuki Cross-Coupling Reactions of Arylboronic Acids and Aryl Chlorides. Isolation and Structural Characterization of (P,O)-Pd(dba) Complex.

The phenyl backbone-derived P,O-ligands 1 and 2 were investigated for their utility as ligands in palladium/ligand-catalyzed Suzuki reactions. The 2-(2'-dicyclohexylphosphinophenyl)-2-methyl-1,3-dioxolane (ligand 1) in combination with Pd(dba)(2) affords an efficient catalyst for general Suzuki reactions of a wide variety of arylboronic acids and aryl chlorides, bromides, and iodides to afford the desired biaryl products in high isolated yields. Arylboronic acids and aryl chlorides containing electron-poor, electron-rich, and ortho substituents participate effectively. In contrast, the structurally related ligand 2-(2'-dicyclohexylphosphinophenyl)-1,3-dioxolane (ligand 2) was found to be less efficient under similar conditions. The reaction of ligand 1 with Pd(dba)(2) affords the complex LPd(dba) (14, L = 1). The NMR spectroscopic and X-ray crystallographic data of complex 14 establish that ligand 1 functions as a P,O-chelating ligand in complex 14. The reaction of ligand 2 (2 equiv) with Pd(dba)(2) and excess 4-(t)()Bu-C(6)H(4)Br or the ligand displacement reaction of {Pd[P(o-tolyl)(3)](4-(t)()Bu-C(6)H(4))(&mgr;-Br)}(2) with ligand 2 affords the bis-phosphine complex L(2)Pd(4-(t)()Bu-C(6)H(4))(Br) (13, L = 2). The NMR spectroscopic data of complex 13 establish that ligand 2 in complex 13 functions as a nonchelating ligand. Thus, the higher efficiency of ligand 1 over ligand 2 in Pd/L-catalyzed Suzuki arylation of aryl chlorides can be ascribed to the ability of ligand 1 to generate and stabilize mono-phosphine P,O-chelating Pd/L intermediates, which appear to be most suitable for Suzuki arylation reactions involving certain substrates and conditions.

High-Throughput Synthesis and Screening of Combinatorial Heterogeneous Catalyst Libraries.

In less than one minute the catalytic activity and selectivity of a single catalyst was measured in combinatorial libraries of ternary Rh-Pd-Pt-Cu alloys. Only slightly more than two hours were needed to complete a library with 136 elements. The elements of the libraries (ca. 2-4 µg of material) are contained in a two-dimensional array synthesized by a thin-film technique. The analysis was performed by a scanning mass spectrometer (see picture).