The present invention relates to a method for producing a formic acid including, a first step of allowing carbon dioxide and hydrogen to react with each other in a solution containing a solvent and a catalyst dissolved in the solvent and in the presence of an amine insoluble in the solvent, and allowing a generated formic acid to adsorb to the amine, in which the catalyst contains at least one metal element selected from the group consisting of metal elements belonging to Groups 8, 9, and 10 of a periodic table and the amine is an amine immobilized on a solid.

The present invention relates to a novel metal complex, a method for producing same, and a method for producing a gamma-lactam compound using same, and the metal complex according to the present invention is used as a catalyst for producing a gamma-lactam compound and can efficiently produce a gamma-lactam compound with an excellent yield and excellent selectivity.

Diphosphites having an open, 2,4-methylated outer unit and use thereof in hydroformylation.

A halosilane compound: R.sup.1CH.sub.2CH.sub.2SiR.sup.5.sub.2X is prepared by hydrosilylation reaction of a vinyl compound: R.sup.1CH═CH.sub.2 with a halogenodiorganosilane compound having formula: HSiR.sup.5.sub.2X in the co-presence of an iridium catalyst, an internal olefin compound, and an allyl halide. The halosilane compound is prepared on an industrial scale with the advantages of low costs, high yields, and high selectivity, using a small amount of iridium catalyst.

Chiral spirobiindane skeleton compound and preparation method thereof is disclosed in the present invention. The spirobiindane skeleton compound of the present invention having the structure formula of I or I′; the preparation method for synthesizing the spirobiindane skeleton compound of the present invention comprising the following steps: in the presence of solvent and catalysts, the structure formula compound III reacted through intramolecular Friedel-Crafts reaction to obtain the compound of formula I; the catalyst is a Browsteric acidor Lewis acid. The preparation method of chiral fused spirobiindane skeleton compound of the present invention does not need to adopt chiral starting materials or chiral resolving agents, does not require chiral resolving steps, is simple in method, is simple in post-treatment, and is economic and environment friendly. High product yield, high product optical purity and chemical purity. The catalyst for the asymmetric reaction is obtained from the chiral spirobiindane skeleton ligand of the present invention, under the catalytic reagent of transition metal, the catalyzed hydrogenation reaction can arrive at a remarkable catalytic effect with a product yield of >99%, and a product ee value of up to >99%. ##STR00001##

The alpha alkylation of an aldehyde with a polycyclic olefin followed by a ring opening step is presented in order to provide a compound of formula (I) in the form of any one of its stereoisomers or a mixture thereof and where in R represents a hydrogen atom or C.sub.1-8 linear alkyl group; R.sup.1, R.sup.2, R.sup.3, and R.sup.4 represent, when taken separately, independently of each other, a hydrogen atom or a C.sub.1-2 linear alkyl group or a C.sub.3-4 linear or branched alkyl group; or R.sup.2 and R.sup.3, when taken together, represent a C.sub.4-10 linear, branched or cyclic alkanediyl group and n is 1 or 2 is presented. ##STR00001##

Catalytic methods for synthesis of super linear alkenyl arenes and alkyl arenes are provided. The methods are capable of synthesizing super linear alkyl and alkenyl arenes from simple arene and olefin starting materials and with high selectivity for linear coupling. Methods are also provided for making a 2,6-dimethylnapthalene (DMN) or 2,6-methylethylnapthalene (MEN).

The present invention relates to a catalyst composition for hydroformylation and a method of preparing an aldehyde using the same. More specifically, the present invention provides a catalyst composition for hydroformylation including a specific phosphite-based ligand and a transition metal compound in a specific amount range, thereby being capable of greatly lowering a use amount of an expensive transition metal compound and exhibiting excellent catalyst activity or stability. In addition, by using the catalyst composition in hydroformylation, excellent reaction efficiency may be provided and iso-aldehyde may be generated in high yield.

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.

Synthetic methods are described herein operable to efficiently produce a wide variety of molecular species through conjugate additions via decarboxylative mechanisms. For example, methods of functionalization of peptide residues are described, including selective functionalization of peptide C-terminal residues. In one aspect, a method of peptide functionalization comprises providing a reaction mixture including a Michael acceptor and a peptide and coupling the Michael acceptor with the peptide via a mechanism including decarboxylation of a peptide reside.