Homogeneous catalytic hydrogenation of unsaturated fats: Group VIB metal carbonyl complexes

Carbonyl complexes of Cr, Mo and W have been studied as soluble catalysts for the hydrogenation of methyl sorbate and of methyl esters from soybean oil. With methyl sorbate, relative catalytic activity decreased in the approximate order: mesitylene-Mo(CO)₃, cycloheptatriene-Mo(CO)₃, cycloheptatriene-Cr(CO)₃, bicyclo (2,2,1) hepta-2,5-diene-Mo(CO)₄, chlorobenzene-Cr(CO)₃, methyl benzoate-Cr(CO)₃, mesitylene-W(CO)₃, benzene-Cr(CO)₃, toluene-Cr(CO)₃, mesitylene-Cr(CO)₃, and hexamethylbenzene-Cr(CO)₃. Order of catalytic activity was related to thermal stability of the complexes during hydrogenation. With mesitylene-M(CO)₃ complexes, selectivity varied in the order Cr>Mo>W. Under certain conditions the mesitylene complexes of W, Cr and Mo reduced methyl sorbate respectively to methyl 2-, 3-, and 4-hexenoates as main products. The more active and thermally stable Cr(CO)₃ complexes catalyzed effectively the hydrogenation of linoleate and linolenate in soybean oil esters with little or no stearate formation. The hydrogenated products formed with the benzoate complex at 165–175 C contained 50–67% monoene, 18–30% diene, 2–7% conjugated diene, and only 3–7%trans unsaturation. Linolenate-linoleate selectivity values varied from 3 to 5 and linoleate-oleate selectivity from 7 to 80. Monoene fractions had 40–50% of the double bond in the C-9 position; the rest of the unsaturation was distributed mainly between the C-10 and C-12 positions. Conjugation is apparently an intermediate step in the hydrogenation of linoleate and linolenate. The Cr(CO)₃ complexes are unique in catalyzing the hydrogenation of polyunsaturated fatty esters to monounsaturated fatty esters of lowtrans content. Presented at AOCS-AACC Joint Meeting, Washington, D.C. April, 1968. No. Utiliz. Res. Dev. Div., ARS, USDA.