A new palladium catalyst was found to exhibit high catalytic activity for carbonylation of olefins and alcohols. cyclo-Bis (μ-carbonyl) dipalladium (I) cation (1) with bridging CO ligands is formed by reductive carbonylation of palladium sulfate, PdSO4, in concentrated H2SO4. When an olefin or alcohol is added, complex 1 changes to a new complex (2) with terminal CO ligands, and tertiary carboxylic acids are obtained in high yields at room ...
