Synthesis of Novel Phosphite Ligands and their Application in Environmental Friendly Catalysis

In this paper, propylene oxide has been first used to modify octylpolyglycol phenylene phosphite (OPGPP). A novel thermoregulated ligand OPGPP-Rh was synthesized for enlarging the application range of thermoregulated phase separable catalysis (TPSC) proposed by us. The ligands being studied have distinct critical solution temperature (CST) in some organic solvents. The CST of OPGPP (EO+PO=26+6) is 70°C in heptane. The authors further investigated the catalytic activity, separation and recycling efficiency of rhodium complex for hydroformylation of 1-octene in the catalytic system with CST. The optimal reaction conditions were as follows: T=100 °C, p=6.0MPa, CO:H2=1:1, reaction time of 5 hours, n (substrate to Rh)=1000, the solvent of heptane. Under the above conditions, the conversion of 1-octene and yield reached 90% and 88%, respectively. The catalyst could be recycled for five times without obvious loss in catalytic activity.