Rhodium phosphine complexes as catalysts

Dialdehydes 8 have been converted to y-lactones 9 in the presence of a rhodium phosphine complex as catalyst. The example shown below demonstrates that this reaction works also with aldehydes that contain a-hydrogen atoms. 

Rhodium also has been reported as a catalyst for [2+2+2] alkyne cycloaddition in water. Uozumi et al. explored the use of an amphiphilic resin-supported rhodium-phosphine complex as catalyst (Eq. 4.60). The immobilized rhodium catalyst was effective for the [2+2+2] cycloaddition of internal alkynes in water,113 although the yields of products were not satisfactory. 

Discrete Chiral Rhodium Phosphine Complexes as Catalysts for Asymmetric Hydrosilation of Ketones... 

Most of the asymmetric homogeneous hydrogenations reported to date have used rhodium-phosphine complexes as catalysts. In a majority of these cases, it has been assumed that the active catalysts are similar to the well-studied... 

Tertiary phosphines are co-oxidized with olefins in the presence of rhodium phosphine complexes as catalysts for oxygenation (cf. Section 3.2.2. ). 

In 1997, Miyaura and co-workers reported the nonasymmetric version of 1,4-addition of aryl- and alkenylboronic acids to a,/ -unsaturated ketones using rhodium-phosphine complex as the catalyst.97 Later, Hayashi and Miyaura realized the asymmetric 1,4-addition with high catalytic activity and enantioselectivity.98 In the presence of ( y)-BINAP, the reaction of 2-cyclohexenone with 2.5 equiv. of phenylboronic acid gave (A)-3-phenylcyclohexanone with 97% ee (BINAP = 2,2 -bis (diphenylphosphino)-l,l -binaphthyl Scheme 29).99... 

Butadiene and ethylene are codimerized with a soluble rhodium-phosphine complex as the catalyst. Very little has been reported on the mechanistic evidence for this reaction. However, a catalytic cycle as shown in Fig. 7.9 involving a rhodium hydride seems likely. Reducing rhodium trichloride with ethanol in the presence of a tertiary phosphine generates the hydride complex 7.32. The 1,4-hydride attack on the coordinated butadiene gives an rf-allyl complex. This is shown by the conversion of 7.33 to 7.34. Ethylene coordination to 7.34 produces 7.35. 

Rhodium-Phosphine Complexes as Homogeneous Catalysts. Hydrogenation of Aromatic Nitro Compounds ... 

Pyridylbenzenes are directly ortfio-arylated with tetra-arylstannanes in the presence of a rhodium(I)-phosphine complex as catalyst [140]. A mechanistic pathway was proposed based on the oxidative addition of a rhodium] I) complex to the ortho position of the phenyl ring directed by the pyridine nitrogen, followed by arylation by the tetra-arylstannane. A somewhat related reaction of arylboronic acids was achieved with a [RhCl(C2H4)2]2/P[p-(CF3)QH4]3 catalyst system [141]. In this instance, the 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine-N-oxyl (TEMPO) radical was used as a stoichiometric oxidant. Arylboronic acids also arylate benzophenone imines in the presence of Rh(I) catalysts [142]. 

The processiag costs associated with separation and corrosion are stiU significant ia the low pressure process for the process to be economical, the efficiency of recovery and recycle of the rhodium must be very high. Consequently, researchers have continued to seek new ways to faciUtate the separation and confine the corrosion. Extensive research was done with rhodium phosphine complexes bonded to soHd supports, but the resulting catalysts were not sufficiently stable, as rhodium was leached iato the product solution (27,28). A mote successful solution to the engineering problem resulted from the apphcation of a two-phase Hquid-Hquid process (29). The catalyst is synthesized with polar -SO Na groups on the phenyl rings of the triphenylphosphine. 

In the hydrogenation of alkenes, rhodium-, ruthenium- and iridium-phosphine catalysts are typically used [2-4]. Rhodium-phosphine complexes, such as Wilkinson s catalyst, are effective for obtaining alkanes under atmospheric pres-... 

For instance, catalysis in liquid/liquid two phases is generally referred to as biphasic catalysis and has widened the practical scope of homogeneous catalysis the catalyst is present in one liquid phase, while reactants and products are present in the other liquid phase. Thus, the catalyst can be separated by simple phase separation. Celanese is operating a 300 000 t/a plant for propylene hydroformylation using a water-soluble rhodium phosphine complex in a biphasic mode of operation at the Ruhrchemie site in Oberhausen [142],... 

The effect of tin compounds, especially tetra-alkyl and tetra-aryl tin compounds, is similar to that of phosphine, though lower temperature and pressure are required for the catalyst s optimum activity. Tin can promote the activity of the nickel catalyst to a level that matches that of rhodium under mild conditions of system pressure and temperature e.g. 400 psig at 160 C. The tin-nickel complex is less stable than the phosphine containing catalyst. In the absence of carbon monoxide and at high temperature, as in carbonyl-ation effluent processing, the tin catalyst did not demonstrate the high stability of the phosphine complex. As in the case of phosphine, addition of tin in amounts larger than required to maintain catalyst stability has no effect on reaction activity. 

For cis-chelate complexes of rhodium and bisphosphines as catalysts, indeed relatively low ratios of n/i aldehyde products were reported (12, 13). Using a 1 1 mixture of H CO at atmospheric pressure, Sanger reported n/i ratios ranging from 3 to 4 for propylene hydroformylation (12). However, his catalyst systems were produced by adding less than 2 mol of bisphosphine per mole tris(triphenyl-phosphine)rhodium carbonyl hydride. When an excess of the chelating bisphosphines was used by Pittman and Hirao (13), low n/i ratios close to 1 were produced from 1-pentene using a mixture of H2/CO at 100-800 psi between 60° and 120°C. 

Homogeneous hydrogenation in the fluorous phase has been so far reported only for a limited set of simple olefins (Richter et al., 1999, Rutherford et al., 1998), as exemplified with the neutral rhodium phosphine complex 18 as catalyst precursor (eq. 5.7). Isomerization of the substrate 1-dodecene (17a) was observed as a competing side reaction under the reaction conditions. The catalyst formed from 18 could be recycled using a typical FBS protocol, but deactivation under formation of metal deposits limited the catalyst lifetime. 

Three commercial homogeneous catalytic processes for the hydroformyla-tion reaction deserve a comparative study. Two of these involve the use of cobalt complexes as catalysts. In the old process a cobalt salt was used. In the modihed current version, a cobalt salt plus a tertiary phosphine are used as the catalyst precursors. The third process uses a rhodium salt with a tertiary phosphine as the catalyst precursor. Ruhrchemie/Rhone-Poulenc, Mitsubishi-Kasei, Union Carbide, and Celanese use the rhodium-based hydroformylation process. The phosphine-modihed cobalt-based system was developed by Shell specih-cally for linear alcohol synthesis (see Section 7.4.1). The old unmodihed cobalt process is of interest mainly for comparison. Some of the process parameters are compared in Table 5.1. 

Since its discovery by Roelen in 1938 [l],the hydroformylation process was exclusively based on cobalt as catalyst metal, until the development of rhodium-phosphine complexes in the late 1960s [2]. Industrial efforts have been focused on the preparation of norraaZ-aldehydes (linear aldehydes) from 1-alkenes. In contrast, asymmetric hydroformylation, which requires iso-aldehydes (branched aldehydes) to be formed from 1 -alkenes, was first examined in the early 1970s by four groups independently, using Rh(I) complexes of chiral phosphines as catalysts [3,4,5,6]. Since then, a number of chiral ligands have been developed for... 

---