Liquid Crystalline Phases and Other Microheterogeneous Systems as Media for Organic Synthesis

Use of different types of mesoporous materials as tools for organic synthesis

“…Reaction I has been investigated previously in various types of microheterogeneous media such as microemulsions [15,20], surfactant liquid crystals [7], and also a slurry of finely divided mesoporous silica [11], and it was found that the reaction proceeded well in such systems. We have also performed the reaction in a range of organic solvents with different polarity (and without surfactant) and by comparing the reaction rates obtained in the different solvents we could establish that the mechanism is that of a second-order nucleophilic substitution reaction [15].…”

“…The CDCl 3 solution obtained after removing the mesoporous material by filtration was evaporated and the residue was weighed. The ratio of starting material (4-tert-butylbenzyl bromide) to product (4-tert-butylbenzyl iodide) was determined by NMR as described previously [7].…”

“…We have recently shown that this is the case. The reaction between 4-tert-butylbenzyl bromide and potassium iodide turned out to be considerably faster in both hexagonal and bicontinuous cubic liquid crystalline phases than in a microemulsion, using nonionic surfactant as amphiphilic component in all systems [7].…”

“…Both microemulsions [2][3][4] and surfactant liquid crystalline phases [5][6][7] have been employed for the purpose. A microemulsion is defined as a thermodynamically stable solution of oil, water, and surfactant and the internal structure can be oil-in-water, water-in-oil, or bicontinuous.…”

Organized molecular systems as reaction media

“…In recent years, microemulsions have been shown to be useful as media for a wide range of chemical reactions [2], such as bioorganic synthesis [3], preparation of nanoparticles [4], polymerisation [5], organic synthesis [6], metalligand complex formation [7], and enzyme processes [8]. Because the topic is now a mature field of study, it is virtually impossible to cover the entire area of reactivity in organized molecular systems.…”