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 2mol%. 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.