Oxo process - prodn of aldehydes and ketones with improved catalysts

摘要

In an improved oxo process for producing aldehydes and alcohols, suitable e.g. as intermediates for softeners for PVC or as starting materials for vitamin A, by reacting olefinically unsaturated compounds with carbon monoxide and hydrogen at elevated temperature and pressure in the presence of rhodium carbonyl complexes as catalysts, the catalyst is fed into the reaction in the form of a solution of rhomdium salts (pref. rhodium (III) chloride hydrate) in (cyclo)alkenols optionally carrying inert substituents (pref. allyl alcohol, 1-buten-3-ol, 1-butene-3,4-diol or 2-butene-1,4-diol). The catalyst solution is light-, air- and temperature-stable, does not deposit metallic rhodium during the oxo reaction, and dissolves homogeneously in the olefin used as starting material for the oxo process.