In industrial chemistry, carboalkoxylation is a process for converting alkenes to esters. This reaction is a form of carbonylation. A closely related reaction is hydrocarboxylation, which employs water in place of alcohols.
A commercial application is the carbomethoxylation of ethylene to give methyl propionate:[1]
The process is catalyzed by . Under similar conditions, other Pd-diphosphines catalyze formation of polyethyleneketone.
Methyl propionate ester is a precursor to methyl methacrylate, which is used in plastics and adhesives.[2]
Carboalkoxylation has been incorporated into various telomerization schemes. For example carboalkoxylation has been coupled with the dimerization of 1,3-butadiene. This step produces a doubly unsaturated C9-ester:[3]
Related to carboalkoxylation is hydroesterification, the insertion of alkenes and alkynes into the H-O bond of carboxylic acids. Vinyl acetate is produced industrially by the addition of acetic acid to acetylene in the presence of zinc acetate catalysts: Presently, zinc acetate is used as the catalyst: