Carbonylation process

Claim 1

In the process of carbonylating olefinically unsaturated hydrocarbons of from 2 to 30 carbon atoms free from acetylenic unsaturation and conjugated olefinic unsaturation with carbon monoxide and with at least one hydroxylic compound selected from the group consisting of water, alkanol of from 1 to 20 carbon atoms, carboxylic acid of from 2-20 carbon atoms and mixtures thereof in the presence of a catalyst, the improvement which comprises producing predominately straight chain products by employing as said catalyst a composition consisting essentially of a. a zerovalent noble metal phosphine complex of the general formula (R3P)nM wherein M is palladium or platinum, n is a whole number from 1 to 4 inclusive and R independently is a monovalent hydrocarbyl or substituted hydrocarbyl moiety of from 1 to 20 carbon atoms inclusive of substituents, is free from aliphatic carbon-carbon unsaturation and is selected from the group consisting of unsubstituted alkyl, unsubstituted phenyl, monosubstituted alkyl and monosubstituted phenyl wherein said substitutent is selected from the group consisting of alkoxy, carbalkoxy, trihalomethyl, halo, dialkylamino, alkanoyloxy and phenyl, in an amount of from about 0.0001 to about 0.1 mole percent of noble metal phosphine complex per mole of olefinic double bond present, and b. from about 10 moles to about 150 moles of R3P per mole of said noble metal-phosphine complex.