Rhodium porphyrin bound to a merrifield resin as heterogeneous catalyst for the cyclopropanation reaction of olefins

Abstract

Cyclopropanation reaction is an important tool for obtaining interesting compounds and can be catalyzed by metalloporphyrins with high syn/anti ratio. The catalyst cannot be recycled and is usually lost during chromatographic separation from the two isomeric products. In this paper a meso-tetraphenylporphyrin rhodium(III) chloride was bound to a Merrifield resin and used to catalyze the cyclopropanation reaction of nine olefins, giving good yields and selectivities of the final products and for the first time, a partial recycling of the catalyst. This new catalytic system will be tested in the future for the synthesis of natural products containing cyclopropyl ring.