A process for the production of organic acids having at least three carbon atoms comprises the steps of forming an amount of carbon monoxide and reacting the amount of carbon monoxide with an amount of an unsaturated hydrocarbon. The reaction is preferably carried out in the presence of a supported palladium catalyst, a strong acid, and a phosphine. In some embodiments, the unsaturated hydrocarbon is one of acetylene and methylacetylene, and the organic acid is one of acrylic acid and methyl acrylic acid. The reacting step is preferably performed with carbon monoxide produced from carbon dioxide.

The present invention relates to novel Ruthenium complexes of formulae A1-A4 and their use, inter alia, for (1) dehydrogenative coupling of alcohols to esters; (2) hydrogenation of esters to alcohols (including hydrogenation of cyclic esters (lactones) or cyclic di-esters (di-lactones), or polyesters); (3) preparing amides from alcohols and amines—(including the preparation of polyamides (e.g., polypeptides) by reacting dialcohols and diamines and/or polymerization of amino alcohols and/or forming cyclic dipeptides from p-aminoalcohols; (4) hydrogenation of amides (including cyclic dipeptides, polypeptides and polyamides) to alcohols and amines; (5) hydrogenation of organic carbonates (including polycarbonates) to alcohols or hydrogenation of carbamates (including polycarbamates) or urea derivatives to alcohols and amines; (6) dehydrogenation of secondary alcohols to ketones; (7) amidation of esters (i.e., synthesis of amides from esters and amines); (8) acylation of alcohols using esters; (9) coupling of alcohols with water and a base to form carboxylic acids; and (10) preparation of amino acids or their salts by coupling of amino alcohols with water and a base. The present, invention further relates to the use of certain known Ruthenium complexes for the preparation of amino acids or their salts from amino alcohols.

The invention provides compounds of general structure I: (Ar.sup.1—Ar.sup.2—Ar.sup.3-E-P(=D)R.sub.2-).sub.nM.sub.mX.sub.nL.sub.n″. In this structure: •Ar.sup.1, Ar.sup.2 and Ar.sup.3 are aromatic groups wherein: —Ar.sup.1 and Ar.sup.3 are in a 1,3 relationship on Ar.sup.2, —each of Ar.sup.1, Ar.sup.2 and Ar.sup.3 optionally comprises one or more ring substituents of formula YR′.sub.r wherein each Y independently is absent or is O, S, B, N or Si and each R′ is independently H, halogen, alkyl, cycloalkyl, aryl or heteroaryl and r is 1, 2 or 3, where r is 1 if Y is absent or is O or S, 2 if Y is B or N and 3 if Y is Si, —Ar.sup.1, Ar.sup.2 and Ar.sup.3 are each independently carbocyclic or heterocyclic and each is independently monocyclic, bicyclic or polycyclic and each ring of each of Ar.sup.1, Ar.sup.2 and Ar.sup.3 independently has 5, 6 or 7 ring atoms; •E is absent or is selected from the group consisting of O, S, NR″, SiR″.sub.2, AsR″.sub.2 and CR″.sub.2; •M is a complexing metal; •X is selected from the group consisting of H, F, Br, CI, I, OTf, dba (dibenzylidene acetone), OC(═O)CF.sub.3 and OAc; •L is selected from the group consisting of PR″.sub.2, NR″.sub.2, OR″, SR″, SiR″.sub.3, AsR″.sub.3, alkene, alkyne, aryl and heteroaryl, each of said alkene, alkyne, aryl and heteroaryl being optionally substituted, for example with one or more halogens and/or with one or more R groups as defined herein; •each R is independently alkyl, cycloalkyl, heterocyclyl, heterocycloalkyl, aryl or -, heteroaryl; •D is absent or is ═S or —O or —Z-linker-Z—, where each Z independently is O or NH or N-alkyl and linker is an alkyl chain of 2-5 carbon atoms in length; •each R″ is independently H, alkyl, cycloalkyl, heterocycloalkyl, aryl or heteroaryl, each other than H being optionally substituted, or R″.sub.2 is —Z-linker-Z— as defined above; and •m is 0 or 1 or 2; wherein if m is 0, n is 1, n′ and n″ are 0 and -- is absent; and if m is 1 or 2, n is 1 or 2 and n′ and n″ are integers such that the coordination sphere of M is filled, and D is absent.

The object of the present invention is to provide a process for producing α-fluoroacrylic acid ester at a high starting material conversion, high selectivity, and high yield. The present invention provides a process for producing the compound represented by the formula (1) wherein R represents alkyl optionally substituted with one or more fluorine atoms, the process comprising step A of reacting a compound represented by the formula (2) wherein X represents a bromine atom or a chlorine atom with an alcohol represented by the formula (3) wherein the symbol is as defined above, and carbon monoxide in the presence of a transition metal catalyst and a base to thereby obtain the compound represented by the formula (1). ##STR00001##

The present invention provides novel host-guest complexes, wherein the guest molecule has a diameter larger than the aperture size of the host-a metal organic framework (MOF). The novel host-guest complexes of the invention can be used for drug delivery, sensing, electrical conductivity, luminescence, and energy conversion. The invention also provides a method of making the novel host-guest complex, utilizing the linker exchange conditions in which a guest molecule having a diameter larger than the aperture size of the host is encapsulated into the MOF.

The present invention relates to a catalyst system containing a metathesis catalyst containing at least one N-heterocyclic carbene ligand and at least one phenolic compound and to a process for performing the metathesis on nitrile rubbers for reducing their molecular weight using a metathesis catalyst containing at least one N-heterocyclic carbene ligand (NHC ligand) and at least one phenolic compound.

The present invention relates to an improved method for producing of 1-(5,5-dimethylcyclohex-1-en-1-yl)ethanone and 1-(5,5-dimethylcyclohex-6-en-1-yl)ethanone.

The present invention relates to air stable, binary Ni(0)-olefin complexes and their use in organic synthesis.

A method of using homogenous rhodium catalysts comprising N-heterocyclic carbene ligands for the hydroformylation of olefins and substituted olefins is provided. In some aspects, the methods provided herein relate to the hydroformylation of allyl alcohol to 4-hydroxybutaldehyde in the presence of a rhodium catalyst which contains one or more N-heterocyclic carbene ligands of the formula: ##STR00001##
wherein R.sub.1, R.sub.2, R.sub.3, and R.sub.4 are defined herein.

A catalyst system includes a transition metal salt containing a halo group, an acetate group, or a combination thereof, and an organic phosphine ligand. The molar ratio of the organic phosphine ligand to the transition metal salt is greater than 0 and less than or equal to 50.