ABSTRACT
unique molecular probes have several features which are very useful for revealing differences in surfaces of highly dispersed supported metal catalysts. However, the preparation of ( + )- or ( - )-apopinene is not always as reliable as one would like and optical purities are not always high. This chapter initiates a study of the mechanism of heterogeneous catalytic decarbonylation with the objectives of elucidating the mechanism of and improving the optical yields of decarbonylations of myrtenal to apopinene. The heterogeneous catalytic decarbonylation of aldehydes has been studied and used for organic synthesis for some time, but the reaction mechanism is not well understood. Decarbonylations of benzaldehyde were carried out over six Pd/SiO2 catalysts. Different amounts of catalysts were used so that the numbers of exposed palladium atoms were equal despite the differences in percent dispersions.
