The impact of varying percentages of an organic solvent added to reactions run in aqueous nanomicelles as the reaction medium has been investigated. Issues such as rates of reaction, percent conversion, and yield, as well as various practical aspects (e.g., effect on stirring, etc.), are discussed, leading to an operationally simple method for the general improvement of potentially problematic systems across a broad range of reaction types, in particular for reactions run at scale.
The third generation designer amphiphile/surfactant, “Nok” (i.e., SPGS-550-M; β-sitosteryl polyoxoethanylsuccinate), soon to be commercially available from Aldrich, can be prepared in two steps using an abundant plant feedstock, β-sitosterol, together with succinic anhydride and PEG-550-M. Upon dissolution in water it forms nanomicelles that serve as nanoreactors, which can be characterized by both cryo-TEM and dynamic light scattering analyses. Several transition metal-catalyzed reactions have been run under micellar conditions to evaluate this surfactant relative to results obtained in nanoparticles composed of TPGS-750-M (i.e., a second generation surfactant). It is shown that Nok usually affords yields that are, in general, as good or better than those typically obtained with TPGS-750-M, and yet is far less costly.
Using density functional theory and the COSMO-RS implicit solvent model, we predict the structure and physical chemical properties of nanomicelles derived from the designer surfactant TPGS-750-M used in organic synthesis. We predict that the influence of chain length of the PEG region is low, while the termination of the PEG chain (-OH vs.-OCH ) plays a very large role. The interfacial tension is considerably lower between the micellar and water phases for the -OH than the -OCH terminated surfactant, and our calculations reproduce the large difference observed in average particle size as a function of PEG chain termination. We propose a structure for the nanoparticles formed by TPGS-750-M in water that is consistent with a ≈50 nm average diameter, which is significantly larger than a single micelle. According to the calculations, each nanoparticle would consist of 30-40 aggregated TPGS-750-M micelles forming a compartmentalized nanoparticle, with considerable amounts of water in the PEG region. The whole particle is stabilized by vitamin E succinate at the nanoparticle-water interface. In the presence of Zn dust or powder, the surfactant collides with the Zn surface, and by interactions with the hydrophobic inner cores, form organozinc species that are protected from the surrounding water. This explains why highly moisture-sensitive Negishi-like couplings take place in surfactant-water systems.
A copper-catalyzed intramolecular trifluoromethylation of arylacrylamides leads to oxindole derivatives, effected with stable and inexpensive Langlois' reagent (CF3SO2Na). These reactions proceed via a radical process in water at room temperature. The aqueous solution can be recycled.
Several ppm level gold-catalyzed reactions enabled by the ligand HandaPhos can be performed at room temperature in aqueous nanoreactors composed of the surfactant Nok.
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