Reaction Acceleration at Solid/Solution Interfaces: Katritzky Reaction Catalyzed by Glass Particles

The Katritzky reaction in bulk solution at room temperature is accelerated significantly by the surface of a glass container compared to a plastic container. Remarkably, the reaction rate is increased by more than two orders of magnitude upon the addition of glass particles with the rate increasing linearly with increasing amounts of glass. A similar phenomenon is observed when glass particles are added to levitated droplets, where large acceleration factors are seen. Evidence shows that glass acts as a green heterogeneous catalyst: it participates as a base in the deprotonation step and is recovered unchanged from the reaction mixture. Reaction acceleration at two separate interfaces is recognized in this study: i) air/solution phase acceleration, as is well known in microdroplets; ii) solid/solution phase, where such acceleration appears to be a new phenomenon.

Automated summary

The Katritzky reaction is significantly accelerated by using a glass container as the reaction medium, with further increase in reaction rate upon the addition of glass particles. The study also reveals a new phenomenon of reaction acceleration at the solid/solution interface.