Nickel(O)-TPPTS-Cyanide complex in water. An efficient and flexible catalyst for the isomerisation of olefinic compounds at room temperature

For the past 30 years, the TPPTS synthesis has allowed the development of water-organic biphasic systems offering new green processes with an easy catalyst separation. However, olefin isomerisation reactions based on nickel phosphite or phosphine complexes in organic media cannot be easily adapted in a water-organic biphasic system because the Ni(0)-TPPTS complex is not stable enough in an aqueous medium. To make this adaptation successful, we stabilized the Ni(0)-TPPTS complex with cyanide ligands in basic medium. Such a biphasic Ni(0)-TPPTS-cyanide system revealed a high catalytic activity for the isomerisation of butenes and other olefins at room temperature with a simple catalyst separation.