Patent ID: 8093409

Claim:
A method for producing a cyclic unsaturated compound represented by the formula (4): wherein R 1 and R 2 are the same as defined below for formula (2) and R 3 , R 4 , R 5 , and R 6 are the same as defined below for formula (3), the method comprising reacting an α, β-unsaturated carboxylic acid with an unsaturated organic compound, wherein the α, β-unsaturated carboxylic acid is represented by the following formula (2): in the formula, R 1 and R 2 may be the same or different, and represent a hydrogen atom, an alkyl group containing 1 to 12 carbon atoms, a cycloalkyl group containing 3 to 8 carbon atoms, or an aromatic part-containing group, the R 1 and R 2 may be bonded to one another to form a ring structure, the method comprises: a step of reacting the a, β-unsaturated carboxylic acid with the unsaturated organic compound in the presence of a catalyst; and a step of reoxidizing the catalyst using a reoxidant agent, and molecular oxygen is used as one reoxidant agent in the step of reoxidizing the catalyst, the catalyst comprises at least one member selected from the group consisting of mono-, di-, tri-, and tetra-valent palladium and positively charged palladium, the unsaturated organic compound is represented by the following formula (3): in the formula (3), each one of R 3 , R 4 , R 5 , and R 6 individually represents a hydrogen atom; a member having 1 to 60 carbon atoms selected from the group consisting of linear saturated alkyl groups, branched saturated alkyl groups, alicyclic saturated alkyl groups, unsubstituted aryl groups and a member having up to 60 carbon atoms and an ester group, and R 3 , R 4 , R 5 , and R 6 may be bonded to one another to form a ring structure.