ABSTRACT
There have been many approaches published to "immobilize" a homogeneous catalyst. These heterogeneous catalysts must have better activity, selectivity, lifetime or some other property to warrant their use in an industrial chemical process. This talk will draw upon the author's experiences at DuPont and Air Products with Nafion®, Nafion® on carbon, anionic attached [Rh(CO)2l2]" to Reillex-425, carbons as catalysts for the hydrolysis of esters, heterogeneous catalyst to activate dimethyl ether as a methyl transfer reagent, and monoliths as hydrogenation catalysts. These individual experiences will show the complexities of a simple problem-"immobilization".
