Telomerisation of buta-1,3-diene and methanol: Superiority of chromanyl-type phosphines in the Dow process for the industrial production of 1-MOD

Butadiene and methanol were telomerised in the presence of palladium catalysts with ligands containing 8-diphenylphosphinochromane-like substituents at phosphorus. MonoXantphos and monoSPANphos afforded the most active, stable and selective catalysts known to date under commercially relevant production conditions for 1-methoxyocta-2,7-diene, the precursor to oct-1-ene.