Patent ID: 7015360

Claim:
A hydroformylation process which comprises reacting a prochiral or chiral olefinically unsaturated organic compound with carbon monoxide and hydrogen in the presence of an optically active metal-ligand complex catalyst to produce an optically active aldehyde product, said optically active metal-ligand complex catalyst comprising a metal complexed with an optically active ligand having the formula wherein each W is independently either oxygen or alkylamido (—NR), arylamido (—NAr), silylamido (—NSiR 3 ) or —NH; each Z and Y is the same or different and is a substituent other than hydrogen; each Z′ and Y′ is the same or different and is selected from hydrogen, substituents connected to the biaryl moieties through carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, or silicon, and halogen; Z and Z′ can be optionally bridged to form a substituted or unsubstituted cyclic hydrocarbon residue; X is a substituted or unsubstituted hydrocarbon residue such that the corresponding HW—X—WH is not optically active.