Rh-Catalyzed Hydroformylation of Alkenes
Organometallics, Vol. 18, No. 17, 1999 3431
cells described in the literature (for a review, see Whyman24).
The high-pressure cell was situated in a Perkin-Elmer 983
infrared spectrometer. The resolution was set to 4 cm-1 for
all spectroscopic measurements. A schematic diagram of the
experimental setup can be found in ref 15c.
of alkenes due to turnover effects or due to systematic
changes in the conversion of the rhodium precursor?
Exp er im en ta l Section
In -Situ Sp ectr oscop ic a n d Kin etic Stu d ies. The experi-
ments were performed in a similar manner. First, single-beam
background spectra of the IR sample chamber were recorded.
Then 5-20 mL of alkene was dissolved in 150 mL of n-hexane,
and this solution was transferred under argon to the autoclave.
Under 0.2 MPa CO pressure, infrared spectra of the alkene
solution in the high-pressure cell were recorded. The total
system pressure was raised to 2.0 MPa CO, and the stirrer
and high-pressure membrane pump were started. After equili-
bration, infrared spectra of the alkene/n-hexane/CO solution
in the high-pressure cell were recorded. A solution of 100 mg
of Rh4(CO)12 dissolved in 100 mL of n-hexane was prepared,
transferred to the high-pressure reservoir under argon, pres-
sured with CO, and then added to the autoclave. Infrared
spectra of the alkene/n-hexane/CO/Rh4(CO)12 solution in the
high-pressure cell were recorded. Hydrogen (2.0 MPa) was
then added to initiate the syntheses. Spectra were recorded
at 15 min intervals in the range 1600-2200 and 1100-1300
Gen er a l In for m a tion . All solution preparations were
carried out under argon (99.999% Pan Gas AG, Luzern,
Switzerland) using standard Schlenk techniques.20 The argon
was further purified prior to use by passage through a column
containing 100 g of reduced BTS-catalyst (Fluka AG Buchs,
Switzerland) and 100 g of 4 Å molecular sieves to adsorb trace
oxygen and water, respectively. All reactions were carried out
under carbon monoxide (99.997% Messner Griesheim GmbH,
Germany) and hydrogen (99.999% Pan Gas AG, Luzern,
Switzerland) after further purification through deoxy and
zeolite columns.
The precious metal complex Rh4(CO)12, with stated purity
of 98% min was obtained from Strem Chemicals SA (Bis-
chheim, France) and was used without further purification,
although trace quantities of the high nuclearity cluster
Rh6(CO)16 are virtually always present. The complex Rh4(CO)12
is known to be oxygen, water, and light sensitive.4 The
n-hexane solvent (stated purity >99.6%, Fluka AG) was
refluxed over sodium potassium alloy under argon. Weights
were measured with a precision of 0.1 mg. Volumes were
measured with a precision of 0.045 mL. Further microanalytic
techniques were not employed.21 All alkenes used in this study
were of the highest quality commercially obtainable, usually
99.0+% (obtained either from Wiley Organic Chemicals, Lan-
caster Chemicals, U.K., Fluka AG, Switzerland, or Merck,
Germany). Concerning further purification, the alkenes were
simply degassed before use.
Equ ip m en t. In-situ spectroscopic studies were performed
in a 1.5 L stainless steel (SS316) autoclave (Bu¨chi-Uster,
Switzerland), which was connected to a high-pressure infrared
cell. The autoclave (Pmax ) 22.5 MPa) was equipped with a
packed magnetic stirrer with six-bladed turbines in both the
gas and liquid phases (Autoclave Engineers, Erie, PA) and was
constructed with a heating/cooling mantle. A high-pressure
membrane pump (Model DMK 30, Orlita AG, Geissen, Ger-
many) with a maximum rating of 32.5 MPa and a 3 L/h flow
rate was used to circulate the n-hexane solutions from the
autoclave to the high-pressure IR cell and back to the autoclave
via jacketed 1/8 in. (SS316) high-pressure tubing (Autoclave
Engineers). The entire system, autoclave, transfer lines, and
infrared cell, was cooled using a Lauda cryostat Model RX20
and could be maintained isothermal (∆T e 0.5 °C) at 298-
313 °C. Temperature measurements were made at the cry-
ostat, autoclave, and IR cell with PT-100 thermoresistors. The
necessary connections to vacuum and gases were made with
1/4 in. (SS316) high-pressure tubing (Autoclave Engineers),
and 1.0, 5.0, and 10.0 piezocrystals were used for pressure
measurements (Keller AG Winterthur, Switzerland). The
entire system was gastight under vacuum as well as at 20.0
MPa, the maximum operating pressure.
cm-1
.
A considerable number of spectral subtractions were per-
formed on each reaction spectrum in order to subtract the
absorbance of the n-hexane solvent, dissolved CO, the absor-
bance of the Rh4(CO)12, the absorbance of the alkenes, and the
absorbance of the aldehydes.
The solubility of CO under these reaction conditions was
approximately 0.033 mole fraction, and the solubility of H2 was
approximately 0.018 mole fraction.17 Consequently, the moles
in each experiment were 1.51 mol of n-hexane, 0.05 mol of CO,
and 0.03 mol of H2. Since the amount of Rh4(CO)12 used in the
experiments was ca. 100 mg, and since the maximum amount
of alkenes was ca. 20 mL, the corresponding in-situ measured
initial concentrations of Rh4(CO)12 in the experiments was ca.
6.6 × 10-5 mole fraction.
The present hydroformylation reactions were performed
under negligible gas-liquid mass transfer resistance. The
experimentally measured overall mass transfer coefficients
KLa for hydrogen and carbon monoxide into n-hexane at 200
rpm were approximately 0.1 and 0.6 s-1, respectively, as
determined using the method of Deimling.25 Since the maxi-
mum observed rate of hydroformylation in this study was 4 ×
10-7 mol s-1, all experiments belong to the category of infinitely
slow reaction with respect to gas-liquid mass transfer (i.e.,
the kinetic regime, Hatta category H).26 The liquid phase of
each experiment became essentially saturated with dissolved
CO and H2 in the first 60 s. Mass transfer effects are known
to severely complicate the interpretation of kinetic data from
hydroformylation reactions.27
In any single 8 h kinetic experiment, less than 0.01 mol
conversion (or 3%) of alkene to aldehyde occurred. Therefore,
the partial pressures of hydrogen and carbon monoxide in the
closed-batch autoclave changed less than 1% during the each
8 h experiment. This partial pressure change was considered
negligible, and hence, the liquid-phase concentrations of the
two gaseous components were treated as constants for the
duration of each experiment.
The high-pressure infrared cell was constructed at the ETH-
Zu¨rich of SS316 steel and could be heated and cooled. The CaF2
single-crystal windows (Korth Monokristalle, Kiel, Germany)
had dimensions of 40 mm diameter by 15 mm thickness. Two
sets of Viton and silicone gaskets provided sealing, and Teflon
spacers were used between the windows. The construction of
the flow-through cell22 is a variation on a design due to Noack23
and differs in some respects from other high-pressure infrared
The approximate mole fractions of the acyl rhodium tetra-
carbonyl species RCORh(CO)4 and the aldehydes were deter-
(24) Whyman, R. In Laboratory Methods in Vibrational Spectros-
copy, 3rd ed.; Willis H. A., van der Maas, J . H., Miller, R. G. J ., Eds.;
Wiley: New York, 1987; Chapter 12.
(25) Deimling, A.; Karandikar, B. M.; Shah, Y. T.; Carr, N. L. Chem.
Eng. J . 1984, 29, 127.
(26) Levenspiel, O. Chemical Reaction Engineering; Wiley: New
York, 1972; p 418.
(20) Shriver, D. F..; Drezdzon, M. A. The Manipulation of Air-
Sensitive Compounds; Wiley: New York, 1986.
(21) (a) Cheronis, N.D. Micro and Semimicro Methods; Inter-
science: New York, 1954. (b) Ma, T.S.; Horak, V. Microscale Manipula-
tions in Chemistry; Wiley: New York, 1976. (c) Kirk, P. L. Quantitative
Ultramicro Analysis; Wiley: New York, 1954.
(22) Dietler, U. K. Dissertation 5428, ETH-Zurich, 1974.
(23) Noack, K. Spectrochim. Acta 1968, 24A, 1917.
(27) Bhattacharya, A.; Chaudari, R. V. Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. 1987,
26, 1168.