Tandem hydroformylation/hydrogenation of alkenes to normal alcohols using Rh/Ru dual catalyst or Ru single component catalyst.

The catalyst system for tandem hydroformylation/hydrogenation of terminal alkenes to the corresponding homologated normal alcohol was developed. The reaction mechanism for the Rh/Ru dual catalyst was investigated by real-time IR monitoring experiments and (31)P NMR spectroscopy, which proved the mutual orthogonality of Rh-catalyzed hydroformylation and Ru-catalyzed hydrogenation. Detailed investigation about Ru-catalyzed hydrogenation of undecanal under H(2)/CO pressure clarified different kinetics from the hydrogenation under H(2) and gave a clue to design more active hydrogenation catalysts under H(2)/CO atmosphere. The solely Ru-catalyzed normal selective hydroformylation/hydrogenation is also reported.