Thermomorphic systems involving temperature-induced phase transfer

In recent decades, homogeneous catalysis has played an increasingly important role in industry, with high activity catalysts that are remarkably selective and enable reactions to be carried out under mild conditions. However, the difficulty (and cost) of separating and recycling catalysts, based on precious metals and often expensive organic ligands, remains a serious drawback.

As previously mentioned, catalysis in a liquid-liquid two-phase system, based on the solubilization of catalyst and product in two immiscible solvents, can provide a solution, as illustrated by the RuhrChemie-Rhone-Poulenc process based on the use of water-soluble catalysts. However, this technique is limited by the solubility of the substrate(s) in the aqueous phase and mass transfer.

An elegant solution is to use thermomorphic systems which enable the catalytic...