Recycling Homogeneous Catalysts Simply by Organic Solvent Nanofiltration: New Ways to Efficient Catalysis

Organic solvent nanofiltration is a convenient method for the recovery of homogeneous transition metal catalysts. The long chain olefin 1-dodecene is hydroformylated continuously, and the commercially available catalyst complex is separated efficiently using a commercially available nanofiltration membrane. An advantage of this method is that both reaction and separation take place in a single liquid phase. Only continuous operation shows interactions of reaction and separation in the long run. Low energy demand, high scalability as well as transferability to other reactions make this method promising for new industrial applications.