Comparison of homogeneous and heterogeneous palladium hydrogenation catalysts

Mechanistic and kinetic studies of Pd-catalyzed hydrogenation at atmospheric pressure and 30–100 C were carried out with methyl sorbate, methyl linoleate and conjugated linoleate. Homogeneous Pd catalysts and particularly Pd-acetylacetonate Pd(acac)₂] were significantly more selective than Pd/C in the hydrogenation of sorbate to hexanoates, mainlytrans-2-hexenoate. Relative rate constants for the different parallel and consecutive reactions, determined by computer simulation, indicated that the low diene selectivity of Pd/C can be dattributed to a significant direct reduction of sorbate to hexanoate. The similar behavior of PdCl₂ to that of Pd/C suggests that Pd(II) was initially reduced to Pd(O). Valence stabilization of PbCl₂ by adding DMF or a mixture of Ph₃P and SnCl₂ increased the diene selectivity but decreased the activity. Stabilization of Pd(acac)₂ with triethylaluminum (Ziegler catalyst) resulted in increased activity but decreased selectivity. The kinetics of methyl linoleate hydrogenation showed that although Pd(acac)₂ was only half as active as Pd/C, their respective diene selectivity was similar (10.4 and 9.6). The much greater reactivity of conjugated compared with unconjugated linoleate toward Pd(acac)₂ suggests the possible formation of conjugated dienes as intermediates that are rapidly reduced and not detected in the lipid phase during hydrogenation.