Attempting to grade phase transfer catalysts

Electrical potential oscillations across liquid-liquid interfaces in phase transfer catalytic systems were studied. The possibility of using the ampli tudes of these oscillations as a criterion for grading the catalysts in ord er of their efficacies for a reaction was suggested. Gradation in the effic acies of the catalysts derived on the basis of the gradation in the amplitu des in the reactions of nucleophilic nature was shown to be in agreement wi th the gradation in the partition coefficients of the nucleophiles in the p resence of the phase transfer catalysts. Copyright (C) 1999 John Wiley & So ns, Ltd.