Hydroformylation The OXO reaction

Click the structures and reaction arrows in sequence to view the 3D models and animations respectively

The OXO process is the hydroformylation of alkenes that uses two migratory insertions to make higher value aldehydes. A catalytic cycle (going clockwise from the top) shows the various stages of alkene coordination, hydrometallation to produce an alkyl metal species, coordination to carbon monoxide followed by insertion, oxidative addition of hydrogen, and finally reductive elimination to produce the product aldehyde and the metal-hydride intermediate – which is then ready for another cycle.

S. A. Decker and T. R. Cundari, Organometallics, 2001, 20, 2827.