Applications in Synthesis of Commodities and Fine Chemicals

Channels and cages of microporous and mesoporous materials can be considered as nanoreactors whose properties (topology, morphology, nature of the active site and chemical surroundings) can be finely tuned and fitted to the synthesis of functionalised high-added value molecules, such as commodities and fine chemicals. This text summarises a selected list of examples and reactions where zeolites, zeotypes and ordered mesoporous inorganic molecular sieves can be successfully employed as catalysts with enhanced performance with respect to conventional systems. These applications encompass electrophilic substitution of aromatics (alkylation, acylation, nitration, halogenation), acid-catalysed rearrangement of olefins, epoxides, oximes and arylesters, synthesis of amines and pyridines, cyclo-addition, epoxidation, ammoximation, oxidation of C-H bonds and alcohols as well as stereoselective reactions (diastereo- and enantioselective systems) and cascade one-pot transformations over multifunctional solid catalysts.