Many of GFS' long-time products have been sold as catalysts for a number of important industrial applications.
For example, our anhydrous cerium chloride has been sold as a catalyst in order to activate ketones in pharmaceutical syntheses reactions.
Anhydrous CeCl3 as a Ketone Activating Catalyst
Anhydrous cerous chloride is a valuable reagent in several selected synthetic methodologies. Its versatility stems from its particular and predictable characteristics:
The technique exploits the well-known facility of Ce(III) to interact with carbonyl groups1,2 and nitriles3 on a variety of organic substrates.
Studies have shown that the effectiveness of the method may be, at least in part, dependent upon the care with which the CeCl3 has been rigorously dried 3
C=O groups activated by Ce(III) can form additional compounds with various organometallic reagents, including Grignards and organolithiums, opening up novel synthetic pathways
The CeCl3 reagent has also been used recently in asymmetric syntheses,5 and in the preparation of chiral neomenthyl compounds.6
Bulk application of anhydrous cerous chloride to the processing of pharmaceutical precursors and intermediates is now a reality thanks to new GFS drying technology. Cerous chloride batches to a scale of one ton can be produced with moisture content as low as 1000 ppm.
1 Imamoto, T. et al., Tetrahedron Lett. 1984, 25(38), 4233
2 Luche, J.-L., J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1978, 100, 2226.
3 Dimitrov, V. et al., Tetrahedron Lett., 1996, 37(37), 6787.
4 Marcantoni, E. et al., J. Org. Chem. 1998, 63(11), 3624.
5 Yoda, H. et al., Tetrahedron: Asymmetry 2001, 12(10), 1403.
6 Panev. S, Dimitrov, V., Tetrahedron: Asymmetry 2000, 11(7), 1517.
Insights into other recent applications of anhydrous cerous chloride can be found in the following references:
Comanita, B. M et al., Tetrahedron Lett. 1999, 40(29), 5283.
Yang, J.-F. et al., Youji Huaxue 1999, 19(1), 53.
Katritzky, A. R. et al., J. Org. Chem. 1998, 63(26), 9978.
Imamoto, T. et al., Appl. Organomet. Chem. 1995, 9(5&6), 449.
Bartoli, G. et al., Tetrahedron Lett. 1994, 35(45), 8453.
Shang, X.; Liu, H.-J., Synth. Commun. 1994, 24(17), 2485.
Bartoli, G. et al., J. Chem. Soc. Chem. Commun. 1993, (18), 1373
Paquette, L. A., et al., J. Org. Chem. 1992,57(26), 7118.
Greeves, N., Lyford, L. Tetrahedron Lett. 1992, 33(33), 4759
A review of the GFS Catalysts for Organic Syntheses page in the technical library details the catalyst materials currently available for sale from GFS Chemicals, as well as known catalytic nature of each. Development work currently being pursued at GFS Chemicals in catalysts is occasionally described on our Research & Development News site.
Contact development@gfschemicals.com for more information.
