Rhodium Complexes of Aminophosphines for 1-hexene Hydroformylation

Hydroformylation is one of the most versatile methods for the functionalization of C=C bonds. The rhodium phosphine catalysts, introduced by Wilkinson, have been shown to be more selective, and they give higher rates under milder conditions than the older cobalt carbonyl catalysts. The steric and electronic properties of the ligands have a dramatic influence on the reactivity of organo-metallic complexes. Despite recent extensive investigations on structure-reactivity correlation, the effects of electronic and steric parameters of P-liangds on the catalytic activity of rhodium catalysts, however, are not always predictable^1,2] Here we present a study of the effect of a series of aminophosphines on the rhodium-catalyzed hydroformylation reaction.