Hydroformylation, ruthenium catalyzed mechanism

Ruthenium-catalyzed hydroformylation of alkenes was also studied using charged tags [84]. A unique permanently-charged version of a self-assembling bidentate ligand (Fig. 15) was synthesized to study the catalytic mechanism. 

The intramolecular insertion of a hydride into a coordinated olefin is a crucial step in olefin hydrogenation catalyzed by late transition metal complexes, such as those of iridium, rhodium, and ruthenium (Chapter 15), in hydroformylation reactions catalyzed by cobalt, rhodium, and platinum complexes (Chapter 16), and in many other reactions, including the initiation of some olefin polymerizations. The microscopic reverse, 3-hydride elimination, is the most common pathway for the decomposition of metal-alkyl complexes and is a mechanism for olefin isomerizations. 

Fig. 10. Proposed mechanism for the ruthenium-triphenylphosphine-catalyzed hydroformylation of olefins (36).

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