Pd-catalyzed hydroformylation of styrene using formaldehyde as syngas surrogate

Identifier:  TFG:2547

Handle: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11797/TFG2547

Authors:  Delgado Lijarcio, Javier

Abstract:
Hydrocinnamaldehyde is an interesting compound to be used in perfumery for hyacinth and floral fragrances due to its odor. This compound is currently produced by selective hydrogenation of cinnamaldehyde, whose production is very complex, requires multi-step procedures and is poor sustainable. The metal-catalyzed hydroformylation allows the direct production of hydrocinnamaldehyde in a more sustainable manner, since, the reaction is 100% atom economy and involves only one step. To date, the production of hydrocinnamaldehyde by rhodium-catalyzed hydroformylation of styrene is not optimized enough, since the current process provides moderate regioselectivities. Recently, a new palladium-catalytic system has been proved to be an excellent alternative due to its better regioselectivity using CO-surrogate molecules. This work aims the hydrocinnamaldehyde production by Pd-catalyzed regioselective hydroformylation of styrene using formaldehyde as syngas surrogate, and includes an optimization of the catalytic system, mechanistic studies using deuteron-labelled compounds and a preliminary exploration of the reaction kinetics.