Batchwise and Continuous Organophilic Nanofiltration of Grubbs-Type Olefin Metathesis Catalysts

A mass-tagged N-mesityl imidazolium salt with four additional -CH2NCy2 substituents was synthesized, leading to a molecular mass of nearly 1100 g mol(-1) in the corresponding carbene ligand. This mass-tagged ligand was used to generate the respective Grubbs II and Grubbs-Hoveyda type complexes. The catalytic activity of the latter complex was tested in several olefin metathesis reactions and found to be slightly superior to that of the related N-mesityl based complex. In batchwise solvent resistant nanofiltration experiments the ruthenium complex dissolved in toluene and following a metathesis reactions wits efficiently retained (>99.8%) by a single nanofiltration; the permeate contained less than 4 ppm of Ru. Equally efficient catalyst retention was observed in a membrane reactor utilized for the continuous synthesis of a RCM product.