EPSRC logo

Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference: GR/R59120/01
Title: The Application of Conventional Processing Techniques to Polymer Supported Hydroformylation Catalysts
Principal Investigator: Rooney, Professor D
Other Investigators:
Mooney, Dr D Hardacre, Professor C Doherty, Dr S
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:
Department: Chemical Engineering
Organisation: Queen's University of Belfast
Scheme: Postdoctoral Mobility PreFEC
Starts: 01 November 2001 Ends: 31 October 2002 Value (£): 63,392
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:
Catalysis & Applied Catalysis
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:
Chemicals Pharmaceuticals and Biotechnology
No relevance to Underpinning Sectors
Related Grants:
Panel History:  
Summary on Grant Application Form
One of the most challenging problems associated with the optimisation of the hydroformylation process is the seperation of the catalyst from the product. At present, this can accomplished by anchoring the catalyst to a polymeric support and in a number of cases, the activity and selectivity of these systems is comparable to that obtained using their homogeneous counterparts, with the advantage that the catalyst can be recovered by precipitation and filtration and reused without any significant loss in activity. Surprisingly, there has been no exploitation of the fact that polymer supported catalysts may be amenable to well established processing techniques such as extrusion and coating. The primary aim of this project is to investigate the possibility of using conventional processing and coating methods to generate new polymer supported catalyst forms and to evaluate the performance of these new catalysts in the hydroformylation of 1-alkanes. This will be acheived by investigating the thermal stability ofa range of diphosphine-functionalised polymers and polymer supported catalysts, to identify those with suitable processing characteristics. The rheological properties of these polymers will be investigated and high surface area fibres extruded. A variety of substrates including high surface area silica, magnetic particles such as magnetite and disks will also be coated either by solution techniques or in situ polymerisation. Both the fibrous extrudates and the coated substrates will be tested for hydroformylation activity and their performance compared to their powdered polymer supported counterparts.
Key Findings
This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
Potential use in non-academic contexts
This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
Impacts
Description This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
Summary
Date Materialised
Sectors submitted by the Researcher
This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
Project URL:  
Further Information:  
Organisation Website: http://www.qub.ac.uk