An effective diphosphoramidite rhodium catalyst for selective hydroformylation of 1-octene

A very efficient and highly selective rhodium catalyst with a C2-symmetric BINOL-derived diphosphoramidite ligand for hydroformylation of 1-octene has been developed. At mild conditions (50 °C and 10 bar H2/CO) a very active rhodium catalyst has been obtained which produces over 99% of aldehydes with 98.2% n-regioselectivity. The spectroscopic characterization of the hydridorhodium catalytically active species showed that the diphosphoramidite ligand coordinates bis-equatorially in the trigonal bipyramidal rhodium complex, which coupled with its π-acceptor capacity might account for the high catalyst performance.