Hydroesterification of 1-alkenes in Supercritical Carbon dioxide

Abstract

The palladium catalysed hydroesterification of linear alkenes to obtain carboxylic esters in supercritical carbon dioxide is studied for the first time. Palladium complexes with phosphines containing -CF 3 groups are used as catalyst precursors. For 1-hexene, conversions into the corresponding methyl esters up to 67% were obtained using [PdCl 2 (PhCN) 2 ]/P(3,5-CF 3 C 6 H 4 ) 3 .