Propene rhodium-catalyzed hydroformylation

Homogeneous rhodium-catalyzed hydroformylation (135,136) of propene to -butyraldehyde (qv) was commercialized in 1976. -Butyraldehyde is a key intermediate in the synthesis of 2-ethyIhexanol, an important plasticizer alcohol. Hydroformylation is carried out at <2 MPa (<290 psi) at 100°C. A large excess of triphenyl phosphine contributes to catalyst life and high selectivity for -butyraldehyde (>10 1) yielding few side products (137). Normally, product separation from the catalyst [Rh(P(C2H2)3)3(CO)H] [17185-29-4] is achieved by distillation. 

These assembly ligands will be tested in suitable catalytic reactions that leave the assemblies intact. Salt-forming reactions are not attractive as the salts might interact with the assembly, nor is the use of catalytic metals that compete with the assembly metal for the salen type positions in the ditopic ligand ideally, all potential problems can be avoided if the same metal could be used. Rhodium-catalyzed hydroformylation of 1-octene is a suitable reaction, with the only disadvantage that high pressures are needed, but hydrogen or CO do not interfere with our assemblies. Metal salts do not interfere with the rhodium hydrides involved in the hydroformylation catalysis, as for instance the most effective industrial process today for propene hydroformylation... 

RHODIUM CATALYZED HYDROFORMYLATION OF PROPENE Overall Reaction... 

The thermal instability of rhodium-based hydroformylation catalysts has already been overcome commercially in the Ruhrchemie/Rhone-Poulenc process for propene hydroformylation in which the sodium salt of a sulfonated triphe-nylphosphine ligand (TPPTS, la) is used to solubilize the catalyst in the aqueous phase. In this process, the second phase is toluene and the reaction is carried out as a batch process with rapid stirring to intimately mix the two immiscible phases. After reaction, the system is allowed to separate and the organic phase is simply decanted from the aqueous catalyst phase. Both water-soluble polymers and PAMAM dendrimers have been reported as supports for rhodium-catalyzed hydroformylation under aqueous biphase conditions, but reactivities and regioselec-tivities were only comparable to or worse than those obtained with the reference TPPTS ligand. The aqueous biphase approach has found limited application for the hydroformylation of longer-chain alkenes, because of their very low solubility in water leading to prohibitively slow reaction rates, but there have been a variety of approaches directed at the solution of this problem. 

Hydroformylation of Aliphatic Olefins In 1997, Herrmann and coworkers [25] were the first to use NHCs and imidazohum salts, respectively, as hgands or preligands in rhodium-catalyzed hydroformylation. The isolated NHC-rhodium complexes 1 and 2 (Figure 2.55) and the complexes prepared in situ from the water-soluble imidazolium salts 3a-c and rhodium(lll)acetate were tested in the homogeneous and biphasic hydroformylation of propene. The catalyst derived from 1 produced >99% yield of isomeric butanals (CO/H2 = 1 1,10 MPa S/C = 100 000 1, toluene, 60 h). In the biphasic system, after 20 h of reaction time and S/C = 10000 1 in water, rhodium catalysts derived from 2 or based on hgands 3a-c allowed up... 

Rhodium-catalyzed hydroformylation of propene is industrially realized in three process variations that differ in the way the products are separated from the Rh-catalyst after or during the homogeneous catalyzed reaction. 

High-pressure in situ ETIR and polymer matrix techniques were used to study the rhodium-catalyzed hydroformylation of 1-octene, 1-butene, propene, and ethene using Rh(acac)(CO)2 or Rh(acac)(CO)(PPh3) in a polyethylene matrix as the catalyst precursor. The acyl rhodium intermediates, RC(=0)Rh(C0)4 and RC(=0)Rh (CO)3(PPh3), were observed. It was found that the acyl rhodium tetracarbonyl intermediates easily react with ethene to form acyl rhodium tricarbonyl species RC(=0)Rh(C0)3(C2H4) [61]. Deuterioformylation of l-phenyl-l-(n-pyridyl)-ethenes in the presence of a phosphane-modified Rh4(CO)i2 as catalyst precursor was carried out at 100 bar of CO D2 = 1 1 and 80 °C at partial substrate conversion. On basis ofa direct NMR analysis of the crude reaction mixture, it was concluded that the branched alkyl rhodium intermediate is almost exclusively formed [62]. 

The most common oxidatiou states and corresponding electronic configurations of rhodium are +1 which is usually square planar although some five coordinate complexes are known, and +3 (t7 ) which is usually octahedral. Dimeric rhodium carboxylates are +2 (t/) complexes. Compounds iu oxidatiou states —1 to +6 (t5 ) exist. Significant iudustrial appHcatious iuclude rhodium-catalyzed carbouylatiou of methanol to acetic acid and acetic anhydride, and hydroformylation of propene to -butyraldehyde. Enantioselective catalytic reduction has also been demonstrated. 

In 1975 Kuntz has described that the complexes formed from various rhodium-containing precursors and the sulfonated phosphines, TPPDS (2) or TPPTS (3) were active catalysts of hydroformylafion of propene and 1-hexene [15,33] in aqueous/organic biphasic systems with virtually complete retention of rhodium in the aqueous phase. The development of this fundamental discovery into a large scale industrial operation, known these days as the Ruhrchemie-Rhone Poulenc (RCH-RP) process for hydroformylation of propene, demanded intensive research efforts [21,28]. Tire final result of these is characterized by the data in Table 4.2 in comparison with cobalt- or rhodium-catalyzed processes taking place in homogeneous organic phases. 

Catalyst decomposition is, overall, receiving little attention in academic work on homogeneous catalysis, and only in recent years has research on decomposition and stabilization of organometallic catalysts started to expand (116), with emphasis on reactions of significant commercial interest such as hydroformylation (117), metathesis 118), crosscoupling, and polymerization 119). Ligand decomposition seems to be a key issue for industrial application, because it affects the total number of turnovers, TON. Phosphine decomposition is an unavoidable side reaction in metal-phosphine complex-catalyzed reactions and the main barrier for commercial application of homogeneous catalysts. There are a few exceptions to this statement for example, the rhodium tppts-catalyzed hydroformylation of propene, a process developed by Ruhrchemie-Rhone Poulenc (now Celanese). 

More extensive use has been made of TPPTS than of TPPMS as a ligand for preparing water-soluble homogeneous catalysts. The major reason for this is that the presence of three sulfonate groups on TPPTS causes it to have a greater solubility in aqueous solution than does TPPMS. The principal application of TPPTS has been as a ligand for rhodium in catalyzed hydroformylation reactions. In the hydroformylation of propene with such catalyst systems, the reaction conditions use an equimolar mixture of CO and H2 at 40-bar pressure and 125°C in an aqueous solution of pH 6.0... 

The diphosphines 1 and 2 were tested as ligands in the rhodium-catalyzed bipha-sic hydroformylation of propene. Both catalysts were found to exhibit higher activities and gave rise to higher l/b ratios [4] than TPPTS. Furthermore, it was shown that displacement of the biphenyl unit of 2 by a binaphthyl unit in 1 leads to an in-... 

Table 4. Typical Composition of Products in the Tertiary Phosphine-Modified Rhodium-Catalyzed Propene Hydroformylation at 85-95% Propene Conversion ...

Biphasic catalysis in the presence of water-soluble catalysts has been the most significant development in recent years. After the report of Kuntz on the synthesis of sulfonated triarylphosphine TPPTS (Figure 14.1) and its successful industrial application in Rh-catalyzed hydroformylation of propene, great attention has been focused on the scientific study and industrial application of water-soluble catalysts, especially on water-soluble phosphines [6, 7], phosphites, and other phosphide compounds as well as their rhodium complexes [8]. Among them, TPPTS is the most widely studied and applied. Other important phosphine hgands will he introduced later. 

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