Rhodium complex-catalyzed carbonylation reaction rate

It has been found that iodide salts can promote the oxidative addition of Mel to [Rh(CO)2I2], the rate-determining step in the cycle of the rhodium-complex-catalyzed methanol carbonylation reaction [20]. 

Reaction (78) regenerates Mel from methanol and HI. Using a high-pressure IR cell at 0.6 MPa, complex (95) was found to be the main species present under catalytic conditions, and the oxidative addition of Mel was therefore assumed to be the rate determining step. The water-gas shift reaction (equation 70) also occurs during the process, causing a limited loss of carbon monoxide. A review of the cobalt-, rhodium- and iridium-catalyzed carbonylation of methanol to acetic acid is available.415... 

The reaction of divalent metals, such as copper, nickel, and so on, with dioxetanes in methanol leads to clean catalytic decomposition into carbonyl fragments/ The reaction rates increase with increasing Lewis acidity of the divalent metal and indicate, therefore, typical electrophilic cleavage of the dioxetane. On the other hand, univalent rhodium and iridium complexes catalyze the decomposition of dioxetanes into carbonyl fragments via oxidative addition. 

Rhodium-catalyzed carbonylation of methanol is known as the Monsanto process, which has been studied extensively. From the reaction mechanism aspect, the study of kinetics has proved that the oxidative addition of methyl iodide to the [Rh(CO)2l2] is the rate-determining step of the catalytic cycle. It was also observed that acetyl iodide readily adds to [Rh(CO)2l2], indicating that the acetyl iodide must be scavenged by hydrolysis in order to drive the overall catalytic reaction forward. An alternative to sequential reductive elimination and the hydrolysis of acetyl iodide is the nucleophilic attack of water on the Rh acetyl complex and the production of acetic acid. The relative importance of these two alternative pathways has not yet been fully determined, although the catalytic mechanism is normally depicted as proceeding via the reductive elimination of acetyl iodide from the rhodium center. The addition of iodide salts, especially lithium iodide, can realize the reaction run at lower water concentrations thus, byproduct formation via the water gas shift reaction is reduced, subsequently improving raw materials consumption and reducing downstream separation. In addition to the experimental studies of the catalytic mechanism, theoretical studies have also been carried out to understand the reaction mechanism [17-20]. 

The important discovery by Wilkinson [1] that rhodium afforded active and selective hydroformylation catalysts under mild conditions in the presence of triphenylphosphine as a hgand triggered a lot of research on hydroformylation, especially on hgand effects and mechanistic aspects. It is commonly accepted that the mechanism for the cobalt catalyzed hydroformylation as postulated by Heck and Breslow [2] can be apphed to phosphine modified rhodium carbonyl as well. Kinetic studies of the rhodium triphenylphosphine catalyst have shown that the addition of the aUcene to the hydride rhodium complex and/or the hydride migration step is probably rate-limiting [3] (Chapter 4). In most phosphine modified systems an inverse reaction rate dependency on phosphine ligand concentration or carbon monoxide pressure is observed [4]. 

Extensive spectroscopic and other evidences are available for all the three catalytic cycles. For the Co-based catalytic cycle, good kinetic, spectroscopic, and structural data on model complexes exist. For rhodium-catalyzed carbonylation, oxidative addition is found to be the rate-determining step. In contrast, for iridium-catalyzed carbonylation, insertion of CO is the rate-determining step. Thus kinetic measurements show that for 4.13 the insertion reaction is about 700 times faster than that for 4.11. Computational studies, as mentioned earlier (see 3.5), are also in agreement with the kinetic data. 

The mechanism of the reaction is as shown in equations (13.139) and (13.140). This reaction is also catalyzed by compounds of other metals of groups 8 and 9 such as ruthenium and iridium. Higher alcohols EtOH, Pr"OH, Pr OH also undergo carbonylation to give corresponding carboxylic acids.However, the rate of the reaction is lower. It is assumed that in this case, the oxidative addition of alkyl iodide to the rhodium(I) complex proceeds according to a radical mechanism. Hydrocarboalkoxylation, carbonylation of esters, reductive carbonylation of... 

Shortly after the report of the reaction of a rhodium carbonyl complex with O2 to give coordinated CO2, the catalytic oxidation of CO to CO2 was reported in a similar system [193]. Kiji and Furukawa reported that both [RhCl(COXPPh3)2] and [RhCl(COXMe2SO)2] catalyzed the oxidation of CO in benzene, ethanol, or dimethylsulfoxide. However, the rate was slow and the catalytic efficiency was poor. Reactions catalyzed by [RhCl(COXMe2SO)2] in benzene gave approximately 11m moles of CO2 per m mole of metal complex. The authors describe the reaction as involving (1) coordination of molecular oxygen, (2) reaction with CO in the coordination sphere, and (3) displacement of the product by unreacted CO. 

The mechanism of the cobalt- (BASF), rhodium- (Monsanto), and iridium- (Cativa) catalyzed reaction is similar but the rate-determining steps differ and different intermediate catalyst complexes are involved. In all three processes two catalytic cycles occur. One cycle involves the metal carbonyl catalyst (II) and the other the iodide promoter (i). For a better overview only the catalytic cycle of the rhodium-catalyzed Monsanto process is presented in detail (Figure 6.15.4). Initially the rhodium iodide complex is activated with carbon monoxide by forming the catalytic active [Rhi2(CO)2] complex 4. Further the four-coordinated 16-electron complex 4 reacts in the rate-determining step with methyl iodide by oxidative addition to form the six-coordinated 18-electron transition methyl rhodium (I II)... 

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