Komal Patil

Supported metal catalysts for high pressure hydroformylation

Hydroformylation of olefins has been regarded as one of the highest-volume industrial process to manufacture the desired oxygenate products that are valuable chemicals in fine chemistry.¹ Hydroformylation is commonly conducted in a homogeneous system using Rh or Co complexes with phosphine ligands as catalysts.¹⁻³ Although this process has a high efficiency, it suffers from intrinsic industrial problems. Hence, it would be much more straightforward from a process point of view to replace these systems by a solid catalyst. Even though effective heterogeneous catalysts have been prepared, yet they are still relying on expensive and air/moisture sensitive phosphine ligands.³ The development of ligand-free heterogeneous catalysts is important and environmentally benign for the hydroformylation reaction and has gained much attention. The main problem with metal catalysts is the low selectivity to oxygenate products caused by the hydrogenation and isomerization of alkene that occur as side reactions (Scheme 1).³

In this project, we therefore aim to prepare supported heterogeneous ligand-free catalysts for ethylene hydroformylation. It is essential to apply a support material that stabilizes the catalytically active species and prevent leaching, agglomeration or other types of deactivation. In this regards, carbon supports were chosen owing to their thermal conductivity, their minimal interaction with the active species and the possibility of tuning their surface properties by adding oxygen containing groups. Herein, a functionalized carbon has been synthesized and used for the preparation of a supported rhodium and cobalt nanoparticle catalyst. It is therefore interesting to learn more about how nature and state of the active species (Rh or Co), and the surface properties of the support influences the catalytic performance. We will use advanced characterization techniques such as XRD, XPS, TEM, and EXAFS. Temperature programmed runs and long-term catalytic tests will be carried out in order to provide a deeper understanding of catalyst activity, selectivity and its stability. The goal is also to study the physicochemical properties of catalysts after the catalytic reaction that can provide a better understanding of catalytic process.

Additionally, supported cobalt catalysts usually show low catalytic activity and selectivity for olefin hydroformylation because of high catalytic activity for olefin hydrogenation proceeding at the same time. Therefore, it would be exciting to take up this challenge and improve the selectivity of supported heterogeneous ligand-free Co-based catalysts for ethylene hydroformylation. Influence of supported bimetallic catalyst on hydroformylation reaction will be considered at a later stage of the project.

1. Hou, C., Zhao, G., Ji, Y., Niu, Z., Wang, D., & Li, Y. (2014). Hydroformylation of alkenes over rhodium supported on the metal-organic framework ZIF-8. Nano Research, 7(9), 1364-1369.
2. Beller, M., Cornils, B., Frohning, C. D., & Kohlpaintner, C. W. (1995). Progress in hydroformylation and carbonylation. Journal of Molecular Catalysis A: Chemical, 104(1), 17-85.
3. Huang, N., Liu, B., Lan, X., & Wang, T. (2020). Insights into the bimetallic effects of a RhCo catalyst for ethene hydroformylation: experimental and DFT investigations. Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, 59(42), 18771-18780.

C.V.

July 2022 – Present

Postdoctoral fellow, Materials Chemistry and Catalysis (MCC), Utrecht University, The Netherlands under the supervision of Prof. dr. Petra de Jongh.

Project: Supported metal catalysts for high pressure hydroformylation.

June 2018 – April 2022

Ph.D. Degree, Centre for Nano and Material Sciences (CNMS), JAIN (deemed-to-be university), India under the supervision of Dr. B. M. Nagaraja and Dr. Arvind H. Jadhav.

Thesis: Sustainable Selective Hydrogenation and Dehydrogenation Reactions Using Metal/Metal Oxide-Based Nano-Structured Catalysts.

March 2018 – June 2018

Worked as a Lab Chemist at Clariant, India on the project that involved synthesis of water-based organic azo dyes such as RL-01 and PG-07.

September 2017 – February 2018

Worked as a Research Associate at Western Chemicals Pvt Ltd, India on the project that involved synthesis of various pigments such as PV-32 and PV-50.

June 2015 – May 2017

Masters in Science (M.Sc.), Organic Chemistry, University of Mumbai, India.

June 2012 – July 2015

Bachelors in Science (B.Sc.), Chemistry, University of Mumbai, India.

25 February 1994

Born in Mumbai, India.

Links

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-komal-patil-51b869b0/

ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Komal_Patil8

Orcid: https://orcid.org/my-orcid?orcid=0000-0003-1259-4654