Aqueous olefin hydroformylation using water-soluble mono- and trinuclear N,O-chelate rhodium(I)-aryl ether precatalysts

[Display omitted] •Water-soluble Rhodium(I) precatalysts were evaluated for olefin hydroformylation.•Catalysts can be recycled using an aqueous biphasic strategy.•The trinuclear precatalyst shows greater stability.•Precatalysts show good activity and aldehyde chemoselectivity. Water-soluble, sulfonated, salicylaldiminato-aryl ether mono- (7) and trimeric (8) ligands were prepared and reacted with the [Rh(μ-Cl)(η2:η2−COD)]2 dimer to yield the corresponding water-soluble mononuclear (9) and trinuclear (10) Rh(I) complexes. These rhodium complexes were evaluated and are active as catalyst precursors in the aqueous biphasic hydroformylation of 1-octene and styrene. Optimal conditions were realised, using 1-octene as a model substrate, at 85 °C and a syngas pressure of 50 bar, where the best activity and chemoselectivity for aldehydes was obtained. Catalyst recycling was successfully conducted over 5 cycles in a biphasic medium, with a gradual loss in catalytic performance for both complexes. However, the dendrimer-stabilised trinuclear precatalyst (10) showed improved recyclability during “neat”, aqueous monophasic hydroformylation experiments, while the mononuclear precatalyst (9) showed a reduced overall performance. Both precatalysts showed sustained catalytic activity (> 450 h−1) and a total bias towards aldehyde chemoselectivity during the aqueous biphasic hydroformylation of styrene.