The Need

Conventional approaches used in chemical processes such as synthesis for production of materials involve formation of catalytic sites within the process framework. Current methods used for catalytic site creation tend to be long and result in increased production costs. This is partially due to reliance on inefficient precursors such as tin (Sn) type acetates and other compounds, especially for the applications relating to synthesizing Lewis acid zeolite Sn-Beta compounds during industrial chemical manufacturing processes. Improving precursor material compositions would provide multiple benefits - especially in reducing material production times and costs.

The Technology

The novel approach developed by OSU researchers in this invention involves synthesis of precursors such as Lewis acid zeolite tin (Sn)-beta utilizing alkyl Sn compounds. The approach developed demonstrates that alkyl Sn precursors can effect catalytic site structures and help produce more open sites than currently used compounds. Experiments conducted demonstrate that combinations such as Me-Sn-Cl3 produced the most active catalyst for alcohol ring-opening (ARO) when tested with epichlorohydrin and methanol; while Ph-Sn-Cl3 is more active than Me-Sn-Cl3 for ARO when using 1, 2-epoxyhexane and methanol. In this manner, different alkylated Sn precursors characterized by the inventors enable optimal compound configurations for use in different chemical processes and improve efficiencies.

Commercial Applications

Chemical processes, such as Baeyer–Villiger oxidation reaction and related biomass conversions, benefit from using the compounds developed in this approach, like Lewis acid zeolite Sn-beta compounds of the type. Other applications using catalytic materials for isomerizing glucose into fructose in an aqueous medium would find this approach of value in enhancing process performance.

Benefits/Advantages

Synthesis of materials requiring enhanced quantity and development of open/new sites during the catalytic process can achieve these goals efficiently in terms of time and cost by using the alkyl tin precursor compounds developed and characterized in this approach. Other chemical reaction-related processes could also benefit from considering the novel materials proposed.