Hydroformylation of alkenes (or olefins)

Hydroformylation (or oxo synthesis) involves reacting an olefinic compound with a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen under pressure to form an aldehyde according to the reaction : .

The two most effective metals for catalyzing this reaction are cobalt and rhodium. The active forms of these two metals, in the form of carbonyl hydrides, are soluble in the reaction medium, making hydroformylation a homogeneous catalytic reaction.

Starting mainly with terminal linear olefins, the aldehydes obtained are important basic chemical products that can be converted into alcohols, esters, acids, amines, etc.

The hydroformylation of propene to butanal (and isobutanal), which leads to butanol, isobutanol and 2-ethylhexanol, accounts for 70% of global hydroformylation capacity (table 1 ).