Production of saturated and unsaturated silahydrocarbon mixtures using rhodium catalyst, and to products produced thereby

Claim 1

A process for the production of a mixture of saturated and unsaturated silahydrocarbons which comprises contacting an admixture comprising (A) at least one alpha-olefin containing from 2 to about 20 carbon atoms per molecule, and (B) at least one alkylsilane selected from the group consisting of (i) a dialkylsilane having the formula R--SiH.sub.2 --R.sub.1 (ii) a trialkylsilane having the formula ##STR15## and (iii) mixtures thereof, wherein R and R 1 , the same or different, each represent an alkyl radical of from one to 20 carbon atoms per molecule, with a catalyst comprising a homogeneous, monomeric rhodium-containing catalyst having a basicity substantially equal to or less than that provided by a rhodium-containing catalyst having a triphenyl phosphine ligand or a heterogeneous rhodium-containing catalyst in a halogen-free inert solvent, said process conducted at a temperature of from about 30° to about 200° C., a weight ratio of olefin to alkylsilane of from about 0.5 to about 20 to one and a catalyst concentration of from about 1×10 -5 to about 1×10 -2 millimoles of catalyst per millimole alkylsilane, to produce a mixture containing saturated silane hydrocarbons and an unsaturated silahydrocarbon having the formula ##STR16## wherein R 1 represents an alkyl group having from one to about 20 carbon atoms per molecule, R 2 and R 3 each represent the same or different alkyl groups having from 6 to about 20 carbon atoms per molecule, R 4 represents an alkyl group having from one to about 8 carbon atoms per molecule, and n represents an integer from 0 to 4, inclusive with the proviso that the molecular weight of the unsaturated silane hydrocarbon is above 300.