Polyols hydroformylation-hydrogenation reaction

Soybean oil was converted into polyols to improve its reactivity with isocyanate and used to synthesize PUs via hydroformylation and subsequent hydrogenation reactions. John and co-workers (2002) used three different polyols made from soybean oil triacylglycerides for PU synthesis with TDI and MDI and studied their reactivities and foam formation, and... 

A very efficient method to transform directly an unsaturated triglyceride in polyols is to develop a hydroformylation reaction with sin gas (mixture of hydrogen/carbon monoxide), at 70-130 °C, in the presence of rhodium or cobalt catalysts [70, 71], at higher pressures (4,000-11,000 kPa). In the first step the double bonds are transformed in aldehyde groups, in high yield (reaction 17.25). 

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