Separation of reaction product and palladium catalyst after a Heck coupling reaction by means of organic solvent nanofiltration.

Organic solvent nanofiltration (OSN) is a recently commercialized technology, which we have used to develop a method for the separation of a target product and the Pd catalyst from a Heck coupling postreaction mixture. The experimental setup included commercially available polyimide copolymer membranes with molecular weight cut-off (MWCO) values in the range of 150-300 Da, acetone as the solvent, and a working pressure (N(2)) of 3 MPa. The investigation of the membranes revealed that a membrane with a MWCO of 200 Da provided quantitative retention of the Pd catalyst and quantitative recovery of the target product by means of a cross-flow dia-nanofiltration procedure.