Abstract: Much attention has been paid to the heterogenization of homogeneous rhodium complexes responsible for olefine hydroformylation catalysts in the literature.Many methods have been proposed, but no heterogeneous hydroformylation catalysts are commercially used so far for liquid-phase conversion, primarily because of problems arising from catalyst loss to the product-containing phase.The supported water-soluble phosphine-rhodium complex has been designed to facilitate hydroformylation at interface of two liquids.Immobilization of the catalyst is accomplished by means of the insolubility of the rhodium complex in the organic media.SiO₂ supported water-soluble sulfonated-triphenylphos-phine-rhodium complex shows an excellent catalytic activity for the hydroformylation of higher olefine of methyl 10-undeceoate.The reaction can be easily carried out in a fixed bed reaction system and it is found that the selectivity stabilized in the range of 98%-99% and n-/iso- ratios over 4.0 when P/ Rh molecular ratios in 10-15 under the testing period.This immobilized catalyst also shows significant water loss during the reaction based on IRdata of the catalyst, but non-effect on the catalytic activity has been observed.It is proposed that the ligands and central metal may be redistributed at the initial stage of the reaction to form active species with suitable water content in the fresh catalyst, and then the hydrophilic support holds the water-soluble phosphines by hydrogen bonding of the hydrated sodium-sulfonate group of the surface.

Key words: Supported-water-soluble catalyst, Hydroformylation, Rhodium-complexes