Facile catalyst recycling by thermomorphic behaviour avoiding organic solvents: a reactive ionic liquid in the homogeneous Pd-catalysed telomerisation of the renewable β-myrcene

For the first time, the reactive ionic liquid N,N-dimethyl ammonium N,N-dimethyl carbamate (dimcarb) was used as a polar solvent in the palladium-catalyzed telomerisation of the renewable monoterpene β-myrcene. By doing so, it was possible to avoid any volatile organic solvents. Moreover, the special decomposition behaviour of the reactive ionic liquid dimcarb could be exploited to the extent that dimethyl amine was used as a reagent in the reaction. Accordingly, non-symmetrical C20-chain dimethyl amines were produced from β-myrcene and dimethylamine liberated by dimcarb, achieving selectivities higher than 80%. Detailed investigations revealed the thermomorphic behaviour of the reaction mixture consisting only of dimcarb, β-myrcene and the catalytic system. The advantageous temperature-dependent phase behaviour resulted in one liquid phase occurring at the reaction temperature and two liquid phases upon cooling. Consequently, a virtually pure organic product phase could be separated from the polar catalyst-containing dimcarb phase. Immobilization of the catalyst in the polar reactive ionic liquid phase was ensured by the use of sulfonated triphenylphosphine derivatives. Subsequently, the separated catalyst-containing dimcarb phase was successfully reused in 14 consecutive recycling runs with only minimal leaching of both the catalyst and dimcarb, reaching a total turnover number of 12 000.