Carbonylation

In chemistry, carbonylation refers to reactions that introduce carbon monoxide (CO) into organic and inorganic substrates. Carbon monoxide is abundantly available and conveniently reactive, so it is widely used as a reactant in industrial chemistry. The term carbonylation also refers to oxidation of protein side chains. Several industrially useful organic chemicals are prepared by carbonylations, which can be highly selective reactions. Carbonylations produce organic carbonyls, i.e., compounds that contain the functional group such as aldehydes (), carboxylic acids () and esters (). Carbonylations are the basis of many types of reactions, including hydroformylation and Reppe reactions. These reactions require metal catalysts, which bind and activate the CO. These processes involve transition metal acyl complexes as intermediates. Much of this theme was developed by Walter Reppe. Hydroformylation Hydroformylation entails the addition of both carbon monoxide and hydrogen to unsaturated organic compounds, usually alkenes. The usual products are aldehydes: The reaction requires metal catalysts that bind CO, forming intermediate metal carbonyls. Many of the commodity carboxylic acids, i.e. propionic, butyric, valeric, etc, as well as many of the commodity alcohols, i.e. propanol, butanol, amyl alcohol, are derived from aldehydes produced by hydroformylation. In this way, hydroformylation is a gateway from alkenes to oxygenates. Many organic carbonyls undergo decarbonylation. A common transformation involves the conversion of aldehydes to alkanes, usually catalyzed by metal complexes: Few catalysts are highly active or exhibit broad scope. Large-scale applications of carbonylation are the Monsanto acetic acid process and Cativa process, which convert methanol to acetic acid. In another major industrial process, acetic anhydride is prepared by a related carbonylation of methyl acetate. Dimethyl carbonate and dimethyl oxalate are produced industrially using carbon monoxide and an oxidant, in effect as a source of .