Aldehydes catalysis, rhodium complexes

Abstract The purpose of this chapter is to present a survey of the organometallic chemistry and catalysis of rhodium and iridium related to the oxidation of organic substrates that has been developed over the last 5 years, placing special emphasis on reactions or processes involving environmentally friendly oxidants. Iridium-based catalysts appear to be promising candidates for the oxidation of alcohols to aldehydes/ketones as products or as intermediates for heterocyclic compounds or domino reactions. Rhodium complexes seem to be more appropriate for the oxygenation of alkenes. In addition to catalytic allylic and benzylic oxidation of alkenes, recent advances in vinylic oxygenations have been focused on stoichiometric reactions. This review offers an overview of these reactions... 

Applying P-31 NMR to the field of hydroformylation catalysis by triphenylphosphine rhodium complex-based systems is the subject of this chapter. These hydroformylation catalyst systems are of high academic and technological interest. They are effective for hydroformylat-ing 1-olefins at low pressure and temperature and exhibit a high selectivity to n-aldehydes ... 

Catalysis of hydroformylation by soluble rhodium complexes, particularly with phosphine ligands, provides a selective and mild route to aldehydes. Extensive reviews compare catalysis to the older cobalt systems ". ... 

Thermoregulated phase-transfer catalysis, however, could be successfully put into effect for the hydroformylation of higher olefins in aqueous/organic two-phase media [11], As shown in Table 2, various olefins have been converted to the corresponding aldehydes in the presence of nonionic phosphine-modified rhodium complexes as catalysts. An average turnover frequency (TOF) of 250 h-1 for 1-do-decene and 470 Ir1 for styrene have been achieved. Even the hydroformylation of oleyl alcohol, an extremely hydrophobic internal olefin, would give a yield of 72% aldehyde [19]. In comparison, no reaction occurred if Rh/TPPTS complex was used as the catalyst under the same conditions. 

Indeed, no substrate selectivity or increase in aldehydes ratio was observed when the reactions were conducted in the presence of a free / -CD analogous catalyst [PhN(CH2PPh2)2Rh(cod)]BF4. It must be pointed out that the reactions were performed in an aqueous organic two-phase system with an aqueous phase containing 30% DMF. The presence of an aqueous phase is supposed to force inclusion of the substrate in the cavity during the catalysis. In one-phase medium composed of DMF, the formation of transient adducts between substrate and a rhodium complex modified by a phosphinite /3-CD ligand also seems possible (Figure 19). ... 

The addition of a diazocarbonyl compound to an alkene with metal catalysis is an effective method for the formation of cyclopropanes, as discussed above. However, direct addition to aldehydes, ketones or imines is normally poor. Epoxide or aziridine formation can be promoted by trapping the carbene with a sulfide to give an intermediate sulfur ylide, which then adds to the aldehyde or imine. For example, addition of tetrahydrothiophene to the rhodium carbenoid generated from phenyldiazomethane gave the ylide 131, which adds to benzaldehyde to give the trans epoxide 132 in high yield (4.104). On formation of the epoxide, the sulfide is released and hence the sulfide (and the rhodium complex) can be used in substoichiometric amounts. 

Cyanopropionates have also been employed in catalytic aldol reactions. The enolisation of the nucleophile (7.98) by the rhodium complex of TRAP ligand (7.99) is the basis for the catalysis. The use of bulky esters affords high selectivity in the aldol reaction with formaldehyde (7.100), although only moderate antitsyn selectivity was observed when alternative aldehydes were employed. 

The synthesis of aldehydes by hydroformylation of alkenes is an important industrial process discovered in 1938. The use of biphasic catalysis, which is a well-established method for the separation of the product and the recovery of the catalyst, was developed for this reaction in the Ruhrchemie-Rhdne-Poulenc process a water-soluble rhodium complex is used as catalyst - the reaction proceeding in water - and the organic layer is formed simply by the alkene reagent and the aldehyde products. Butanal is manufactured this way, but owing to the low solubility of longer olefins in water, this process is limited to C2-C5 olefins. To overcome this limitation, ionic liquids have been studied as a reaction solvent for this biphasic reaction. 

The reaction between alkenes and synthesis gas (syngas), an equimolar mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen, to form aldehydes was discovered in 1938 by Otto Roelen [1,2]. Originally called oxo-reaction , hydroformyla-tion is the term used today. This reflects the formal addition of formaldehyde to the olefinic double bond. Commercially, homogeneous metal complexes based on cobalt and rhodium are used as catalysts. With more than 10 million metric tons of oxo products per year, this reaction represents the most important use of homogeneous catalysis in the chemical industry. 

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