Oxidative homocoupling of alkynes using Supported Ionic Liquid Phase (SILP) catalysts - Systematic investigation of the support influence

Supported Ionic Liquid Phase (SILP) catalysts have been prepared by effective immobilization of [Cu(TMEDA)(OH)]Cl in a nano-metric film of an ionic liquid on various oxidic support materials. The catalysts were tested for the oxidative homocoupling of 1-alkynes to the corresponding diynes in in a combined high throughput and conventional batch reaction approach. Among the screened support materials silica based materials performed best. The results indicate that for the specific reaction the thickness of the ionic liquids layer and therefore the mobility of the homogeneous copper complex within the ionic liquid layer as deduced from solid state nmr measurements have major impact on the catalytic performance. The optimized catalysts could be recycled up to four times without any loss of activity.