Acetic acid hydroesterification

As mentioned earlier, palladium, rhodium, and platinum catalysts lead to superior regioselectivities because they work under milder reaction conditions (20-80 °C, 0.1-1 MPa CO) [11], e.g., bimetallic catalysts based on tin(II) chloride and either platinum or palladium complexes afford linear esters in up to 98 % selectivity [12]. In addition, catalyst systems with preference for branched isomers are known. A recent example employed palladium acetate immobilized on montmorillonite in the presence of triphenylphosphine and an acid promoter for the hydroesterification of aryl olefins (eq. (3)). The reaction is totally regiospecific for the branched isomer of aromatic olefins, while aliphatic olefins afford branched chain esters only regioselectively with n/i = 1 3 [13]. 

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