Kinetic Modeling of Rhodium-Catalyzed Reductive Amination of Undecanal in Different Solvent Systems

The homogenously rhodium-catalyzed reductive amination of 1-undecanal was performed in two different thermomorphic solvent systems with the ligand Xantphos. The influences of partial pressure, temperature, methanol and catalyst concentration on the reaction were investigated. Based on a network analysis a kinetic model was derived and successfully parametrized for all studied solvent systems. Simulation results were found to be in good agreement with the experiments and allow a further process development and optimization.