Phase Transfer Catalyst is a popular, well known as most used item in chemical as well as pharmaceutical industry. Provided by different chemical manufacturers in India, it’s amazing uses and benefits make it even more important and increase its demand. Every successful chemical and pharmaceutical industry uses PTC in manufacturing different useful chemicals, drugs and medicines. However, below are 7 important facts that everyone should know about it.
- It is estimated that Phase Transfer Catalyst is used in as many as 500 commercial processes, with sales of products manufactured by processes consisting of at least one major PTC step being at least $10 billion a year, with wide ranging applications in the pharmaceuticals, agro-based chemicals, and polymer industries.
- The foundations of PTC were laid in the late 1960s and early 1970s from the studies of Makosza(1975), Starks(1971), and Brandstrom(1977). Starks is believed to have coined the phrase Phase Transfer catalysis, and although some would tend to disagree with calling the PT cycle a catalytic process in the true sense of the word catalysis, the terminology has been well established and stays, especially since only catalytic amounts of the phase-transfer agents are required for effective phase-transfer action.
- One of the top concerns in using a phase transfer catalyst (PTC) in soluble form is its separation from the reaction mixture.
- Although capsule membrane PTC is not suitable for direct scale-up to industrial level due to the inconveniences of working with capsules, the principles can be exploited in membrane reactors, with the PT catalyst immobilized on the membrane surface. This would not only enable easy recovery of both aqueous and organic phases after reaction without any problems of emulsification, but also ensure that the Phase Transfer Catalyst does not contaminate the product in the organic phase.
- Despite wide-scale applications of PTC reactions in the presence of a base, the mechanism of these reactions is not clear. PTC systems operate via different mechanisms in the presence of bases (Makosza, 1977). However, it is an established fact that in most cases it does not involve the transfer of OH- by the quat as a Q+OH- complex, since Q+OH is highly hydrophilic and has very limited solubility in the organic phase. Alkylation reactions that have been proposed to be mediated through a Q +OH- intermediate probably involve reaction between Q’OH- and the organic substrate at the liquid-liquid interface.
- A number of studies have recently been reported involving the use of microwave irradiation in PTC systems. Reaction in the presence of microwave irradiation is observed to be extremely fast (usually completed under ten minutes) and requires only a simple standard non-modified microwave oven (for laboratory-scale applications). Due to the fast and easy reaction involved, a large number of attempts to try microwave irradiation in PTC systems is expected.
- Phase Transfer Catalyst plays a important role as a synthetic agent in the field of Pharmaceuticals such as for the synthesis of various drugs like dicyclonine, phenoperidine, oxaladine, ritaline, etc.
This post first appeared on Cetrimide | Phase Transfer Catalyst | Tetraethylammonium Tetrafluoroborate, please read the originial post: here
