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

Disclosed herein are a chromium compound represented by Formula 1a or 1b and a catalyst system including the same, exhibiting superior catalytic activity in an olefin trimerization reaction:

[{CH.sub.3(CH.sub.2).sub.3CH(CH.sub.2CH.sub.3)CO.sub.2}.sub.2Cr(OH)]  [Formula 1a]

[{CH.sub.3CH.sub.2CH(CH.sub.2CH.sub.3)CO.sub.2}.sub.2Cr(OH)]  [Formula 1b].

The present invention relates to an oligomerization catalyst including a transition metal or transition metal precursor, a halogen-substituted organic ligand, and a heteroatom ligand, and to a method for selectively preparing 1-hexene or 1-octene from ethylene using the catalyst.

A hydrosilylation iron catalyst prepared from a two-electron ligand (L) and a mononuclear, binuclear, or trinuclear complex of iron indicated by formula (1), Fe having bonds with carbon atoms included in X and the total number of Fe-carbon bonds being 2-10. As a result of using iron, the hydrosilylation iron catalyst is advantageous from a cost perspective as well as being easily synthesized. Hydrosilylation reactions can be promoted under mild conditions by using this catalyst.

Fe(X).sub.a  (1)

(in the formula, each X independently indicates a C2-30 ligand that may include an unsaturated group excluding carbonyl groups (CO groups) and cyclopentadienyl groups, however at least one X includes an unsaturated group, a indicates an integer of 2-4 per Fe atom.)

The invention relates to a process for the carbonylation of epoxides in the presence of catalyst systems, in which the carbonylation is carried out in the presence of carbon monoxide, and wherein the catalyst system comprises a vanadium-based, chromium-based, manganese-based and/or tungsten-based compound, preferably a tungsten-based compound. The invention further relates to carbonylation products and carbonylation conversion products and to the use of catalyst systems according to the invention for carbonylation of epoxides.

Phosphine phosphonate and phenoxyphosphine ligands bearing polyethylene glycol (PEG) chains are used as described herein to produce heterobimetallic catalysts. The ligands can be metallated selectively with palladium or nickel and secondary metal ions to provide well-defined heterobimetallic compounds. These heterobimetallic complexes exhibit accelerated reaction rates and greater thermal stability in olefin polymerization compared to other catalysts.

The invention provides a method comprising hydrogenating a ketone in the presence of (i) a base, (ii) hydrogen gas and (iii) a catalyst comprising a charged or neutral complex of formula (I):

##STR00001## wherein: Mn is a manganese atom or a manganese ion in oxidation state (I) to (VII); R.sup.1 and R.sup.2 are each independently optionally substituted C.sub.4-8monocyclic aryl or C.sub.3-7monocyclic heteroaryl moieties; -Fc- denotes a ferrocene (bis(η.sup.5-cyclopentadienyl)iron) moiety covalently bonded via adjacent carbon atoms of one of the two cyclopentadienyl moieties, and which may be optionally further substituted, in either cyclopentadienyl ring; —Z— is an alkylene linker of the formula —(CH.sub.2).sub.1-6— in which one or more of the hydrogen atoms of the alkylene may be independently substituted; —N.sup.x is an optionally substituted nitrogen-containing heteroaryl moiety, with the proviso that at least one of R.sup.1, R.sup.2 and —N.sup.x is substituted one or more times with an electron donating group; and L.sup.1-L.sup.3 constitute one, two or three ligands, wherein, when the complex of formula (I) is charged, the catalyst comprises one or more additional counterions to balance the charge of the complex.

The present application discloses complexes useful as catalysts for organic chemical synthesis including hydrogenation and dehydrogenation of unsaturated compounds or dehydrogenation of substrates. The range of hydrogenation substrate compounds includes esters, lactones, oils and fats, resulting in alcohols, diols, and triols as reaction products. The catalysts of current application can be used to catalyze a hydrogenation reaction under solvent free conditions. The present catalysts also allow the hydrogenation to proceed without added base, and it can be used in place of the conventional reduction methods employing hydrides of the main-group elements. Furthermore, the catalysts of the present application can catalyze a dehydrogenation reaction under homogenous and/or acceptorless conditions. As such, the catalysts provided herein can be useful in substantially reducing cost and improving the environmental profile of manufacturing processes for variety of chemicals.

Disclosed herein are processes for the decarboxylation, isomerization, hydrogenation, dehydrogenation, and cyclization/aromatization of fatty acids involving contacting a starting material which is an unsaturated fatty acid, unsaturated fatty acid derivative, or an unsaturated triglyceride, in the presence of a catalyst at a temperature at which decarboxylation, isomerization, hydrogenation, dehydrogenation, and cyclization/aromatization occurs and recovering the unsaturated organic compound product; wherein the catalyst is chloro-1,5-cyclooctadiene iridium (I) dimer. The product may contain at least about 8% by volume aromatic content and less than about 25% by volume aromatic content, and wherein the product contains less than about 1% by volume of naphthalenes.

The present invention provides a method for preparing a cyclic carbonate, which has the advantages of high yield, mild reaction conditions, high catalytic efficiency under room temperature and 1 atm pressure conditions, and wide substrate scopes. It is not only suitable for monosubstituted epoxides, but also suitable for disubstituted epoxides. The method comprises the step of reacting epoxides of Formula (I) with carbon dioxide in the presence of a quaternary ammonium salt and a catalyst, to obtain a cyclic carbonate of Formula (II). The reaction formula is:

##STR00001##