Rhodium-catalyzed hydroformylation catalysts containing

To solve the problem of metal recycle, one idea was to fix the rhodium on an inactive support. This rhodium was then extracted from the support by a triphenyl-phosphine-containing solution, thus producing in situ the homogeneous homophase catalyst solution. Friedrich et al. [46] described such a process of rhodium-catalyzed hydroformylation including filtration of the supported catalyst, cooking of the support in a rotary furnace, and thermal stressing distillation of the filtrate, thus separating Rh from the products. 

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. 

The discovery of hydroformylation by Otto Roelen was made while investigating the influence of alkenes on the Fischer-Tropsch reaction using a heterogeneous cobalt oxide catalyst supported on silica. Later it was concluded that hydroformylation is actually a homogeneous process catalyzed by ECo(CO) formed in situ. Many metals catalyze hydroformylation, but the most active catalysts contain cobalt, rhodium, palladium, and platinum as the central metal. The discussion in this chapter centers on the most utilized catalysts ECo(CO), ECo(CO)3PR3, ERh(CO)3(PR3)j, and HRhfCOljfdiphosphine). 

Rhodium precipitation in solubilized rhodium-phosphite complex catalyzed liquid recycle hydroformylation may be minimized or prevented by carrying out product recovery in the presence of an organic polymer containing polar functional groups such as amides, ketones, carbamates, ureas and carbonates.[20] Patent examples include the use of polyvinylpyrrolidone and vinylpyrrolidone-vinyl acetate copolymer with diorganophosphite-modified rhodium catalysts. 

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