In industrial chemistry, carboalkoxylation is a process for converting alkenes to esters.
A closely related reaction is hydrocarboxylation, which employs water in place of alcohols.
A commercial application is the carbomethoxylation of ethylene to give methyl propionate:[1] The process is catalyzed by Pd[C6H4(CH2PBu-t)2]2.
Under similar conditions, other Pd-diphosphines catalyze formation of polyethyleneketone.
This step produces a doubly unsaturated C9-ester:[3][4] Related to carboalkoxylation is hydroesterification, the insertion of alkenes and alkynes into the H-O bond of carboxylic acids.