1 State Key Laboratory and Institute of Elemento-Organic Chemistry, College of Chemistry, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, P.R. China.
2 State Key Laboratory of Organometallic Chemistry, Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 345 Lingling Road, Shanghai 200032, P.R. China.
A rhodium-catalyzed hydroformylation of alkynes with formic acid was developed. The method provides α,β-unsaturated aldehydes in high yield and E-selectivity without the need to handle toxic CO gas.