Studies in hydrocarboxylation of styrene and derivatives using palladium complex catalysts

Abstract

Carbonylation of aryl olefins and alcohols using homogeneous Pd catalysts has gained considerable interest due to their important applications in the synthesis the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs consisting of 2-arylpropionic acids (e.g. Ibuprofen®, Naproxen®). In this work, different homogeneous palladium catalysts were compared for their performances in the hydrocarboxylation of styrene to identify the best performing catalyst system using Pd(pyca)(PPh3)(OTs) as a precursor, which shows above 99% regio-selectivity to 2-phenylpropionic acid as well as high activity. Therefore, this work mainly investigated the kinetics of hydrocarboxylation of styrene using Pd(pyca)(PPh3)(OTs)/PPh3/TsOH/LiCl catalyst system. Particularly, parametric study was carried out to understand the effects of different reaction parameters on the rate of hydrocarboxylation in a batch reactor as well as the concentration-time profiles. For interpretation of the reaction kinetics, a molecular level description of the reaction mechanism (catalytic cycle) was proposed to explain the unique observation of induction period at lower pressures of CO. The experimental concentration-time data for styrene, water and acid products were used to simulate the intrinsic rate parameters using an optimization program. The proposed reaction mechanism based on a Pd-hydride complex as an intermediate active species well explains the experimental data at different temperatures. The approach of micro-kinetic modeling does not require assumption of a rate determining step and provides good description of the complex trends with respect to reaction and catalyst parameters over a wide range of conditions. The approach is also useful to discriminate different reaction mechanisms and obtain intrinsic kinetic parameters for design and scale-up of reactors.