Kinetics of synthesizing polymer-supported quaternary ammonium catalysts.

This study attempted to synthesize the optimum quaterary ammonium poly(styrene-co-methylstyrene) catalyst using the combinatorial chemistry method. The catalyst was synthesized by a mix-split method. A phase-transfer catalyst library with 25 kinds of polystyrene-supported quaternary ammonium salt catalyst was the the result of the reaction of five kinds of chloromethylated crosslinked polystyrene with five tert-amines. The allylation of phenol and the oxidation of benzyl alcohol were used as the probing reaction to screen out the most active catalyst for the reaction using the iterative deconvolution method. The screening conditions included teritary amine and organic solvent. The structure of the most active catalyst in the allylation of phenol shows 20 mol % ring substitution and 0.177-0.25-mm pellet size activated with trihexylamine. For oxidation of benzyl alcohol, the reaction conditions of the most active catalyst included a resin of 20% ring substitution and pellet size of 0.177-0.25 mm, activated with triethylamine reacting in an organic solvent of n-hexane.