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Tip of the Month - Hydration 
Very often, the most powerful factor for enhancing reactivity in PTC systems is controlling HYDRATION. For example, in one PTC application, reducing the hydration shell of hydroxide from 11 molecules of water to 3.5 molecules of water increases reactivity by 11,000-fold!!! Even the nucleophilicity of the poor nucleophile p-nitrophenoxide can be increased by 300% by reducing hydration from 4 molecules of water to 0.4 molecules of water. In contrast, replacing tetrabutyl ammonium bromide with a better catalyst usually can only about double reactivity. These data are presented in the course "Practical Phase-Transfer Catalysis" (click here for next course in the US). Thus, the answer to the Quiz in last month's PTC Tip is HYDRATION ("none of the above"). Last month's Quiz was "Which parameter most often determines PTC reactivity more than catalyst structure?"   a) agitation  b) solvent  c) concentration  d) interfacial tension  e) none of the above.

NEW - PTC Contract Research
In response to customer demand, PTC Organics now offers PTC Contract Research for rapid and highly effective evaluation of breakthrough phase-transfer catalysis processes. As the world leader in industrial phase-transfer catalysis, PTC Organics develops high-performance low-cost PTC processes ready for scale-up in 4-8 weeks (or less for screening PTC process breakthroughs). To start your cost savings process improvement or PTC development program, contact Marc Halpern at PTC Organics by E-mail, website, telephone (+1 856-222-1146) or fax (+1 856-222-1124). Not sure if PTC can help improve performance? Just call and let's talk about PTC.

Click here for 41 high-performance PTC reaction categories and benefits (allow 60 sec for downloading pdf file)

PTC Reaction of the Month - CHLOROMETHYLATION
PTC Organics developed a new in-situ chloromethylation without emulsion formation and is licensing the technology for commercial manufacture to Single Site Catalysts (Chester, PA). This chloromethylation provides the opportunity to perform multiple consecutive PTC reactions in high yield in a single sealed system, avoiding isolation of intermediates. The resulting benzyl chloride intermediates are outstanding substrates for PTC nucleophilic substitution. Contact PTC Organics to outsource manufacturing for any of the following reaction sequences.

Public PTC Course
May 6-7, 2003 in New Jersey and January 13-14, 2003 in Tel Aviv (click on the city for agenda, registration and hotel info). Rapidly achieve process improvement and cost reductions after this highly effective investment of your training budget. OR train your whole department on-site, in-house.

New The PTC Supplier Directory (coming in Jan 2003)
Do you want competitive bids for TBAB? Who sells PEG's? Click here to search for suppliers of > 50 phase-transfer catalysts. Are you a PTC supplier? Click here.

Meet PTC Organics at Informex 2003
Contact PTC Organics or call Marc Halpern at +1 856-222-1146 to arrange a meeting at Informex 2003 booth 1611. If you arrange the meeting before January 7, we will reserve for you a complimentary copy of the CD "The Best of Industrial Phase-Transfer Catalysis."

FREE Download - Industrial PTC
Issue 16 of "Industrial Phase-Transfer Catalysis" (allow 2 min for downloading pdf file)
"Top 10 Opportunities to Improve Process Performance and Profit Using Phase-Transfer Catalysis"

Story of the Month  
An irate customer contacted his ion exchange resin salesman after installing a large new industrial deionization unit. He complained that the quality of the effluent water was no better than the feed water. The salesman asked the customer to send a resin sample from the vessel for analysis by tech support. The customer withdrew the complaint after the operator who was requested to take the sample returned saying, "either the resin is invisible or there ain't no resin in the vessel."

If you have a True Chemical Industry Story you would like to share, please E-mail it to tip@phasetransfer.com or call PTC Organics - Marc Halpern at +1 856-222-1146 or Contact PTC Organics.

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PTC Tip of the Month #2
Copyright 2002 PTC Communications, Inc.