Olefin metathesis over supported rhenium oxide catalysts

Supported rhenium oxide has attracted much attention as solid catalyst for the olefin metathesis reaction because of practical applications. These catalysts are composed of rhenium oxide dispersed over a high surface-area support, such as alumina or silica-alumina. They have a high activity and high selectivity at temperatures of 0-100 degrees C, while they bring about the metathesis of functionally substituted olefins when promoted with a suitable organometallic compound. The interaction of rhenium oxide with the support has been studied by a number of characterisation techniques, resulting in a detailed picture of the structure of the supported rhenium oxide. In this paper an overview is given of the current knowledge about rhenium-based metathesis catalysts, in particular the industrially used Re2O7/Al2O3 catalyst. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.