A simple route to highly active ruthenium catalysts for formylation reactions with hydrogen and carbon dioxide

The formation of highly active ruthenium based catalysts from solid RuCl3 in the presence of phosphines affords a simple route to formamide production from amines, hydrogen and carbon dioxide; the structure of the in situ formed active complex was elucidated by X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) and extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) spectroscopy.