Toward a mild dehydroformylation using base-metal catalysis† †Electronic supplementary information (ESI) available. See DOI: 10.1039/c6sc04607j Click here for additional data file

• Published in: Chemical science (Cambridge) Vol. 8; no. 3; pp. 1954 - 1959
• Main Authors: Abrams, Dylan J., West, Julian G., Sorensen, Erik J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Royal Society of Chemistry 09-11-2016
• Subjects: Chemistry
• ISSN: 2041-6520; 2041-6539
• DOI: 10.1039/c6sc04607j

Dehydroformylation, a challenging, underexplored reaction, can be performed under mild conditions using a designed cooperative base metal catalyst system.
Dehydroformylation, or the reaction of aldehydes to produce alkenes, hydrogen gas, and carbon monoxide, is a powerful transformation that is underdeveloped despite the high industrial importance of the reverse reaction, hydroformylation. Interestingly, nature routinely performs a related transformation, oxidative dehydroformylation, in the biosynthesis of cholesterol and related sterols under mild conditions using base-metal catalysts. In contrast, chemists have recently developed a non-oxidative dehydroformylation method; however, it requires high temperatures and a precious-metal catalyst. Careful study of both approaches has informed our efforts to design a base-metal catalyzed, mild dehydroformylation method that incorporates benefits from each while avoiding several of their respective disadvantages. Importantly, we show that cooperative base metal catalysis presents a powerful, mechanistically unique approach to reactions which are difficult to achieve using conventional catalyst design.