Preparation of conjugated soybean oil and other natural oils and fatty acids by homogeneous transition metal catalysis

The use of as little as 0.1 mol% [RhCl(C8H14)(2)](2') 0.25 mol% PtCl2(PPh3) (2') or 0.5 mol% RuHCl(CO)(PPh3)(3') where Ph = phenyl, catalyzes the isome rization of soybean oil to conjugated soybean oil under mild reaction condi tions and in high yields. No hydrogenation products are detected with any o f these catalysts. Preliminary physical tests have shown that the conjugate d soybean oil has exceptional drying properties and the resulting coatings exhibit good solvent resistance; The [RhCl(C8H14)(2)](2) catalyst provides similarly high yields of other conjugated vegetable oils, conjugated linole ic acid, and conjugated ethyl linoleate. Other rhodium catalysts, such as R hCl(PPh3)(3') have also been found to be effective for the conjugation of e thyl linoleate.