Simple chemistry can make catalysts recoverable and reusable without affecting their performance, claim two polymer chemists at Texas A&M University. 

David Bergbreiter and Jun Li attached palladium catalysts to the ends of a widely available polymer, polyisobutylene, and assessed the effectiveness of these 'supported catalysts' for accelerating organic reactions.

They found that the catalysts can be re-used without any degradation in performance and, crucially, can be recovered easily, without precipitation or filtration.

The polymer dissolves in non-polar solvents whereas the substrate and products dissolve in polar solvents. The reaction is therefore carried out in a mixed solvent system; the catalyst can be separated from the substrate and products simply by cooling the reaction mixture until the two solvent phases separate.

Caroline Evans