Deconvoluting Substrates, Support, and Temperature Effects on Leaching and Deactivation of Pd Catalysts: An In Situ Study in Flow

Leaching behavior of three different Pd heterogeneous catalysts (PdEnCat 30, FibreCat FC1001, and Pd/Al2O3) during the Heck reaction of iodobenzene and methyl acrylate, in the presence of triethylamine, was compared using a tandem flow reactor. While leaching was observed in all three cases, Pd/Al2O3 appeared to be the most robust, showing little/no leaching at ambient temperature. The leached Pd species also appear to display different catalytic activities. With a slight modification of the reactor, the leaching caused by individual components of the reaction mixture can be assessed separately. For the polymer-supported catalysts, triethylamine caused the largest amount of leaching, even at 30 °C. In contrast, the leaching from Pd/Al2O3 was observed only in the presence of iodobenzene at 90 °C. Variations in leaching behavior were ascribed to differences in Pd species and immobilization methods.