Swollen-induced in-situ encapsulation of chiral silver catalysts in cross-linked polysiloxane elastomers: Homogeneous reaction and heterogeneous separation

Abstract The immobilization of molecular catalysts to fabricate heterogeneous catalysts for catalytic asymmetric transformations is extremely important and has attracted great attentions. Herein we developed a simple and new strategy for the heterogenization of homogeneous molecular complexes into the cross-linked polymer. It is demonstrated for the first time that the cross-linked polysiloxane elastomers can be applied for the swollen-induced in-situ encapsulation of homogeneous catalysts with or without chiral ligands. The swollen-induced in-situ encapsulation of silver catalyst system in the cross-linked polysiloxane elastomers led to the formation of silicone rubber-based hierarchically porous that could be used in asymmetric [3+2] cycloaddition, asymmetric tandem conjugate addition−elimination reaction and oxidation of hydrosilanes to silanols. The swollen-induced in-situ encapsulation of chiral silver complex in the cross-linked polysiloxane elastomers was proved to be easily recycled by filtration or pick-up and reused by several times. The simplest heterogeneous catalysis by the strategy of swollen-induced in-situ encapsulation can be extended to the encapsulation of chiral metal catalysts into different polymeric materials for the heterogenization of homogeneous catalysis.