The objective is to incarcerate a Lewis acid metal in a polymer and to
make this catalyst recoverable while maintaining its function as a Lewis
acid metal catalyst. The present invention is a polymer-incarcerated
Lewis acid metal catalyst in which a Lewis acid metal is incarcerated in
a crosslinked polymer and the crosslinked polymer is crosslinked using
the crosslinking groups contained in a crosslinkable polymer. The polymer
incarcerated Lewis acid metal catalyst is characterized by the
crosslinkable polymer containing at least one type of monomer unit
containing hydrophobic substituents and hydrophilic substituents
containing crosslinking groups, and the hydrophobic substituents contain
aromatic substituents. This crosslinkable polymer preferably comprises at
least one type of monomer unit containing hydrophobic substituents and
hydrophilic substituents containing crosslinking groups and a monomer
unit containing hydrophobic substituents. This catalyst can be obtained
by subjecting a polymer micelle incarcerated Lewis acid metal obtained by
mixing an organic solution containing a crosslinkable polymer and a Lewis
acid metal with a bad solvent to a crosslinking reaction. This catalyst
is useful as a catalyst in aldol reactions, cyanolation reactions,
allylation reactions, Michael reactions, Mannich reactions, Diels Alder
reactions and Friedel Crafts reactions.