Hydroformylation and related reactions

This chapter focuses on hydroformylation, or the OXO (oxonation) reaction, which is used to describe the addition of CO and H2O to the C=C bond of an olefin or other unsaturated compounds. It talks about the synthesis of fatty alcohols from terminal olefins such as hept-l-ene. It also analyzes linear alcohols prepared by hydroformylation of mixtures of C12 olefins obtained by the controlled oligomerization of propylene, used in the synthesis of biodegradable detergents. The chapter deals with the bulk of productions via hydroformylation which involves relatively simple olefins. This is applied to a great variety of substituted olefins, both simple and complex. It illustrates several variations of olefin hydroformylation processes that have been commercialized.