Author(s)

Hisashi Masui, Eiki Honda, Sakura Niitsu, Mitsuru Shoji, Takashi Takahashi^*

Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Yokohama University of Pharmacy, Yokohama, Japan.

Despite hydroformylation being a very efficient method for the transformation of alkenes, it is not commonly employed in laboratories owing to the flammable/toxic nature of hydrogen and carbon monoxide gases and the necessity of high-pressure equipment in a batch system. Flow chemistry often raises the safety profiles against high-pressure and toxic gases because the diameter of the flow reactor is small. Herein, we show that aliphatic alkenes can be safely hydroformylated in a flow reactor. In our flow method, although the target hydroformylated product was obtained in a low yield (19%), toxic gases were safely treated using a flow reactor. Better yields could possibly be achieved by recycling of the unreacted alkene.

Hydroformylation, Flow Synthesis, Alkene, Carbon Monoxide, Aldehyde

Masui, H. , Honda, E. , Niitsu, S. , Shoji, M. and Takahashi, T. (2018) Safe Hydroformylation of Aliphatic Alkene in a Flow Reactor. International Journal of Organic Chemistry, 8, 135-141. doi: 10.4236/ijoc.2018.81009.