Rhodium-catalyzed codimerization of n-butenes with allylic halides

• The codimerization of n-butenes with allylic halides is discussed.
• The catalyst RhCl3·3H2O was investigated resulting 70% yield of codimers.
• The reaction depends on the molar ratio of the substrate to RhCl3·3H2O.
• Allylic compounds like cinnamyl chloride lead to higher yields than short chained.

This paper describes the codimerization of n-butenes with allylic halides such as cinnamyl chloride and crotyl chloride. The highly active catalyst RhCl3·3H2O was investigated, resulting 70% yield of codimers with cinnamyl chloride and 1-butene. Furthermore, the reaction is dependent on the molar ratio of allylic chloride to RhCl3·3H2O ratio, where a ratio of 75:1 is optimal at a catalyst concentration of 2 mol%. Additionally allylic compounds such as cinnamyl chloride lead to higher yields of the codimer than other short chained allylic chlorides. So the codimerization of an allylic compound with 1-butene represents a simple method to produce short chained dienes at very mild reaction conditions.

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