Safe Hydroformylation of Aliphatic Alkene in a Flow Reactor

Abstract

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.