Heterogeneous
chiral catalysts were prepared by modifying silica-supported rhodium (Rh/SiO
2) with
chiral phosphorus ligands. The
chirally modified Rh/SiO
2 catalysts exhibited high activity, regioselectivity, and enantioselectivity for the asymmetric hydroformylation of styrene and vinyl acetate. Up to 72%ee and 100%selectivity of branched aldehyde for the hydroformylation of vinyl acetate were obtained for (
R)-BINAP–Rh/SiO
2 catalysts. It is noteworthy that the
modification of Rh/SiO
2 with (
S,
S)-DIOP resulted in increased activity for the hydroformylation of vinyl acetate and gave a TOF of 128 h
−1, even higher than that of the unmodified Rh/SiO
2 catalyst (90 h
−1). It is found that
chiral modifiers with bidentate phosphines and an optimized modifier/rhodium molar ratio close to 1.0 were prerequisites for
chiral induction on the
chirally modified catalysts.
MAS NMR results and IR spectra of adsorbed CO indicated that the chiral modification via the coordination of phosphines to rhodium produces chirally active sites on the Rh/SiO2 catalysts.