Bisphosphite ligands for hydroformylation catalyzed by transition metals

1. A bisphosphite of formula I

wherein X is a divalent substituted or unsubstituted bisalkylene or bisarylene radical which may comprise one or more heteroatom(s), Y is a divalent substituted or unsubstituted bisarylene or bisalkylene radical which may comprise one or more heteroatom(s), Z is oxygen or NR 9 , R 1 , R 2 , R 3 , R 4 are identical or different, substituted or unsubstituted, unlinked aryl or heteroaryl radicals, and R 9 is hydrogen or a substituted or unsubstituted alkyl or aryl radical which may comprise one or more heteroatom(s).

2. The bisphosphite according to claim 1 , wherein X is a radical Xa,

where the radicals R 5 , R 6 , R 7 , R 8 can be, independently of one another, substituted or unsubstituted aliphatic, alicyclic, aromatic, heteroaromatic, mixed aliphatic-alicyclic, mixed aliphatic-aromatic, heterocyclic, mixed aliphatic-heterocyclic hydrocarbon radicals having from 1 to 50 carbon atoms or H, F, Cl, Br, I, —CF 3 , —(CH 2 ) i (CF 2 ) j CF 3 where i=0-9 and j=0-9, —SiR 21 3 , —Si(OR 21 ) 3 , —SiR 21 (OR 21 ) 2 , —SiR 21 2 OR 21 , —OSiR 21 3 , —OSi(OR 21 ) 3 , —OSiR 21 (OR 21 ) 2 , —OSiR 21 2 OR 21 , —OR 19 , —COR 19 , —CO 2 R 19 , —CO 2 M, —SO 2 R 19 , —SOR 19 , —SO 3 R 19 , —SO 3 M, —SO 2 NR 19 R 20 , —NR 19 R 20 or —N═CR 19 R 20 , wherein, R 19 , R 20 and R 21 are selected independently from the group consisting of H, monovalent substituted or unsubstituted aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbon radicals having from 1 to 25 carbon atoms wherein R 21 ═H is excluded, and M is an alkali metal ion, formally half an alkaline earth metal ion, an ammonium ion or a phosphonium ion.

3. The bisphosphite according to claim 1 , wherein X is an ethylene radical substituted by the radicals R 1′ , R 2′ , R 3′ and R 4′ , wherein the radicals R 1′ , R 2′ , R 3′ and R 4′ have the same meaning as the radicals R 1 , R 2 , R 3 , R 4 .

4. The bisphosphite according to claim 3 , wherein X is an ethylene radical substituted by the radicals R 1′ , R 2′ , R 3′ and R 4′ , wherein the radicals R 1 and R 1′ , R 2 and R 2′ , R 3 and R 3′ and R 4 and R 4′ in each case are identical.

5. The bisphosphite according to claim 1 , wherein the radicals R 1 , R 2 , R 3 , R 4 are unsubstituted phenyl radicals.

6. The bisphosphite according to claim 1 , wherein Y is selected from the group consisting of bisphenoxy radicals of formulae IIa to IId

and bisnaphthoxy radicals of the formula III

7. A phosphite-metal complex comprising a metal of Group 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 or 10 of the Periodic Table of the Elements and one or more bisphosphites according to claim 1 .

8. The phosphite-metal complex according to claim 7 , wherein the metal is rhodium, palladium, nickel, platinum, cobalt or ruthenium.

9. In the method of hydroformylation, carbonylation, hydrogenation or hydrocyanation reaction, the improvement which comprises conducting said method with an active catalyst species comprising the bisphosphite according to claim 1 .

10. The method according to claim 9 , wherein the method is a homogeneous catalysis.

11. The method according to claim 9 , wherein the method is the hydroformylation of olefins.

12. The method according to claim 11 , wherein a metal complex having rhodium or cobalt as metal is used in hydroformylation.

13. The method according to claim 12 , wherein the molar ratio of metal to bisphosphite in the reaction mixture is from 1:1 to 1:500.

14. A process for preparing a bisphosphite according to claim 1 comprising:

1) reacting a diol Aa or an alcohol amine Ab with phosphorus trihalide to form an intermediate A;

2) reacting a tetraarylethanediol Ca, which can bear identical or different, substituted or unsubstituted, linked or unlinked, fused or unfused aryl or heteroaryl radicals, with phosphorus trihalide to form an intermediate C;

3) reacting the intermediate A or C with a diol Ba to form an intermediate B; and

4) reacting the intermediate B with the intermediate A or C which was not used in process step 3).

15. The process according to claim 14 , comprising reacting at least one of the diols Aa, Ba, Ca, the alcohol amine Ab, and the intermediate C in at least one of 1), 2), 3) and 4) with a metal compound to form the corresponding metal salt which is then reacted with the phosphorus trihalide.

16. The process according to claim 15 , wherein sodium hydride, methyllithium or butyllithium is used as metal compound.

17. The process according to claim 14 , comprising carrying out the reaction with phosphorus trihalide in the presence of a base.

18. The process according to claim 17 , wherein a tertiary amine is used as base.

19. The bisphosphite according to claim 1 , wherein the bisphosphite of formula I is selected from the group consisting of D-1, D-2, D-3 and Ib:

20. A bisphosphite selected from the group consisting of I-1, I-2 and I-3,

wherein X is a divalent substituted or unsubstituted bisalkylene or bisarylene radical which may comprise one or more heteroatom(s), Y is a divalent substituted or unsubstituted bisarylene or bisalkylene radical which may comprise one or more heteroatom(s), Z is oxygen or NR 9 , R 9 is hydrogen or a substituted or unsubstituted alkyl or aryl radical which may comprise one or more heteroatom(s), the radicals Q are identical or different and are CH 2 , CR 9 R 10 , CHR 9 , O, NH or NR 9 , where R 9 and R 10 are identical or different and have the meanings given above for R 9 .