Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Studies Of A Dirhodium Tetraphosphine Catalyst For Hydroformylation And Aldehyde-Water Shift Catalysis, Aaron Rider Barnum

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Research into the dirhodium tetraphosphine catalyst precursor [rac-Rh2(nbd)2(et,ph-P4)](BF4)2 shows it is capable of forming a highly active and regioselective hydroformylation catalyst in situ when using an acetone or acetone/water solvent. Hydroformylation experiments (using 1-hexene), FT-IR studies, and acid-base studies were performed to better understand the various complexes of the dirhodium catalyst cycle. These studies lead to the newly proposed catalyst mechanism when performed in an acetone/water solution, using the monocationic [rac-Rh2(H)(µ-CO)2(CO) (et,ph-P4)]+ as the proposed active catalyst complex for hydroformylation. For the conversion of 1-hexene to heptanal, it is capable of performing an initial rate of 30 turnovers per min, …