Recent Development in Liquid-Liquid Two-Phase Catalysis

One of the most important recent developments in homogeneous catalysis is the introduction of the two-phase technique.This method uses a homogeneous catalyst dissolved in polar phase.The catalyst seperation from the products can be easily achieved by simple phase decantation.The two most important liquid/liquid two-phase catalysis,SHOP for ethylene oligomerization and RCH/RP process for propene hydroformylation,was introduced.From an industrial view point,this paper reviewed several recently developed examples in the liquid/liquid two-phase catalysis field,e.g.thermoregulated phase transfer catalysis (TRPTC),fluorous biphasic catalysis (FBS) and non-aqueous ionic liquid (NAIL).