New basic catalysts for fine chemicals synthesis

In the last years, there is an increasing interest in substituting old technologies by cleaner catalytic alternatives to afford more environmental friendly processes in the chemical industry. In this way, it is a continuous challenge to find new base catalysts able to perform, with high activity and selectivity, reactions for the synthesis of pharmaceutical and fine chemicals. The research described in this work has focused on the study of synthesis protocols for new types of hydrotalcite-like materials with controlled basicity and also, for a new family of short aliphatic chain ionic liquids. The basic properties have been characterized by several techniques and by illustrative test reactions such as the liquid-phase aldol condensation between aldehydes and ketones, double bond migration of olefins and synthesis of unsymmetrical organic carbonates. Good results in terms of conversion and selectivity were obtained employing these new catalysts. The work done in this study can be regarded as a progress in the design of new catalytic systems, more active and efficient for use in fine chemical processes.