Oligomerization of 1-butene over carbon-supported CoOx and subsequent isomerization/hydroformylation to n-nonanal

Abstract A two-step process was demonstrated for the conversion of 1-butene to n-nonanal with an overall reaction selectivity of 70.8%. The process consists of a dimerization step over a heterogeneous carbon-supported cobalt oxide catalyst to a mixture of oligomers, consisting primarily of internal linear octenes. After product distillation, the olefinic mixture was converted to C 9 aldehydes with a normal/isomeric (N/I) ratio of 3.8 over a homogeneous Rh/BIPHEPHOS catalyst. This work demonstrates a new route to produce linear aldehydes from light olefins.