Imperial Chemical Industries Limited

Johnson Matthey Public Limited Company

Johnson Matthey Inc.

Frederick Ernest Hancock

Walter Leitner

Antonio Zanotti-Gerosa

Alan Dyke

Andreas Seger

Giancarlo Francio

Brian Adger

Thomas Pullmann

Neil Aubrey Caplan

Graham John Hutchings

Edmund Hugh Stitt

Samuel David Jackson

Bernard John Crewdson

Thomas Pullman

Methods of making a chiral phosphorus compound of formula (X) are disclosed: wherein R, R, Rare chiral or achiral groups selected from the list consisting of substituted or unsubstituted straight-chain, branched-chain or cyclic aliphatic or aromatic groups and in which the pair R/Rmay be interconnected to form a ring.

Chiral phosphorus compound

The present invention relates to novel chiral phosphorus compounds which can be readily prepared from quinoline derivatives as inexpensive starting compounds and have the general formula (I) wherein R, R, R, R, Rare chiral or achiral organic residues which are derived from substituted or unsubstituted straight or branched chain or cyclic aliphatic or aromatic groups and which, in the case of the pairs R/Rand R/R, may be interconnected. Further, the invention relates to methods for the synthesis of chiral phosphorus compounds of general formula (I) and their use as catalyst components in processes for the preparation of optically active products.

A process for performing a catalytic Diels-Alder reaction by reacting a diene with a dienophile in the presence of a heterogeneous catalyst comprising a zeolitic material exchanged or impregnated with ions of a Lewis acidic metal is described. The catalyst, for example, copper-exchanged zeolite Y, may be treated with chiral bis(imine) compounds to direct the chirality of the reaction products. The catalyst can be separated from the reaction mixture and re-used in further Diels Alder reactions.

Catalysts

A zeolite-immobilized Lewis acid e.g. copper catalyst for performing carbonyl-ene and iminoene reactions is described. The catalyst can readily be separated from the reaction mixture and re-used in further reactions with minimal reduction in activity.

A process for the scrubbing of chlorine is scrubbed from a chlorine-containing gas using an aqueous feed liquor containing an excess of alkali to give an effluent liquor containing chloride and hypochlorite ions is disclosed. The effluent liquor is recycled as part or all of the aqueous feed liquor. For at least part of the time, at least part of the effluent liquor is passed through a fixed bed of a catalyst for the decomposition of hypochlorite ions whereby hypochlorite ions are decomposed to oxygen gas and chloride ions. The resultant catalyst-treated liquor is mixed with the remainder, if any, of the effluent liquor and recycled, optionally together with added fresh alkali solution, as the aqueous feed liquor. Part of the effluent liquor is optionally discharged as a purge stream before or after passage through catalyst bed. The process may be operated in a continuous mode or in a semi-continuous mode wherein a reservoir holding the liquor to be recycled is periodically discharged, preferably through the catalyst bed, and then recharged with fresh alkali solution. Alternatively two reservoirs may be employed with one supplying the aqueous feed liquor while the other is being discharged and replenished. In the latter case, the reservoir being discharged may have its liquor discharged through the catalyst bed.

Process for removing chlorine from gas stream

Shaped units suitable for use as a catalyst, e.g. for the decomposition of hypochlorite, comprise a compacted particulate mixture of at least one oxide of a Group VIII metal M selected from nickel and cobalt, a calcium aluminate cement, and alumina and/or magnesia, the shaped units having (after ignition in air at 900&deg; C.) a content of a Group VIII metal oxide of 10 to 50% by weight (expressed as the divalent oxide, MO), a calcium oxide content of 1 to 10% by weight, an alumina content by weight that is at least four times the weight of calcium oxide, a total content of alumina plus magnesia of at least 40% by weight, a silica content of less than 1% by weight, and the shaped units having a pore volume in the range 0.2 to 0.5 ml/g and having a pore size distribution such that from 5 to 25% of the total pore volume is in the form of pores of diameter in the range 15 to 35 nm, at least 30% of the total pore volume is in the form of pores of diameter greater than 35 nm, and 10 to 20% of the total pore volume is in the form of pores of diameter greater than 1500 nm.

Growing community of inventors

Cleveland, United Kingdom

Frederick Ernest Hancock