Rhodium complexes reaction with carbon monoxide

The mechanism is well understood, involving complexation of the rhodium with iodine and carbon monoxide, reaction with methyl iodide (formed from the methanol with hydrogen iodide), insertion of CO in the rhodium-carbon bond, and hydrolysis to give product with regeneration of the complex and more hydrogen iodide. 

Carbon monoxide insertion and decarbonylation reactions of rhodium complexes have been studied mainly in the context of investigations concerned with catalysis. 

The hydroformylation of alkenes is commonly run using soluble metal carbonyl complexes as catalysts but there are some reports of heterogeneously catalyzed reactions of olefins with hydrogen and carbon monoxide. Almost all of these are vapor phase reactions of ethylene or propylene with hydrogen and carbon monoxide catalyzed by rhodium, " 20 ruthenium,nickel, 22,123 cobalt, 23,124 and cobalt-molybdenum 23 catalysts as well as various sulfided metal catalysts. 23,125,126... 

Conjugated dienes can be selectively hydrated to ketones in the presence of cationic ruthenium complexes with bipyridyl ligands. The role of ruthenium is to catalyze the isomerization of allylic alcohols formed by the addition of water to diene. This method allows one to convert butadiene to methyl ethyl ketone in high yield [187]. Hydration of triple bonds is one of the oldest catalytic processes of organic chemistry. Though this reaction has no industrial value, it can serve as a tool of fine organic synthesis. The hydration can be catalyzed by rhodium salts under phase-transfer conditions [188]. The more exotic process of the hydrolysis of phenylacetylene to toluene and carbon monoxide catalyzed by ruthenium complex should also be mentioned [189] ... 

The use of a catalyst such as cadmium oxide increases the yield of dibasic acids to about 51% of theoretical. The composition of the mixed acids is about 75% C-11 and 25% C-12 dibasic acids (73). Reaction of undecylenic acid with carbon monoxide using a triphenylphosphine—rhodium complex as catalyst gives 11-formylundecanoic acid, which, upon reaction with oxygen in the presence of Co(II) salts, gives 1,12-dodecanedioic acid in 70% yield (74). 

The reaction of alkenes with alkenes or alkynes does not always produce an aromatic ring. An important variation of this reaction reacts dienes, diynes, or en-ynes with transition metals to form organometallic coordination complexes. In the presence of carbon monoxide, cyclopentenone derivatives are formed in what is known as the Pauson-Khand reaction The reaction involves (1) formation of a hexacarbonyldicobalt-alkyne complex and (2) decomposition of the complex in the presence of an alkene. A typical example Rhodium and tungsten ... 

In an early investigation (28, 59, 60), critical combinations of several reaction parameters were discovered to produce unusually high yields of the linear isomer. The parameters included low partial pressure of carbon monoxide, high concentration of phosphite or aryl phosphine ligands, and low total gas pressure. The catalyst was a soluble complex of rhodium, formed in situ from rhodium metal in many cases. Isomer ratios of 10 1 to 30 1 were obtained by appropriate selection of these reaction parameters. Losses to alkane were minimal, even with Pm as low as 10 psi. Tables XI-XIV illustrate the effects of these various reaction parameters on the product composition. 

Matsuda et al. recently described a domino reaction of 1,6-enyne derivatives with a hydrosilane and carbon monoxide in the presence of a catalytic amount of a rhodium complex to give a five-membered ring product containing a silylmethy-lene group.1761... 

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. 

The rate-determining step in this process is the oxidative addition of methyl iodide to 1. Within the operating window of the process the reaction rate is independent of the carbon monoxide pressure and independent of the concentration of methanol. The methyl species 2 formed in reaction (2) cannot be observed under the reaction conditions. The methyl iodide intermediate enables the formation of a methyl rhodium complex methanol is not sufficiently electrophilic to carry out this reaction. As for other nucleophiles, the reaction is much slower with methyl bromide or methyl chloride as the catalyst component. 

An intramolecular allenylidene-alkynyl coupling was also observed in the reaction of the mixed alkynyl-allenylidene rhodium(I) complex 73 with carbon monoxide (Scheme 25). In this case, the initially formed thermally unstable allenyl derivative 74 evolved into the metallated cyclobutenone 75 when an excess of CO was present [276]. 

Scheme 7.3 Reaction of surface Jt-allyl rhodium siloxide complex with carbon monoxide.

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