Conjugation of soybean oil by decomposition of its iron tricarbonyl complex with carbon monoxide

Soybean and other vegetable oils are conjugated by decomposing their iron tricarbonyl complexes with carbon monoxide at elevated pressures. This procedure converts the iron tricarbonyl moiety of the complex into iron pentacarbonyl, which is recovered for reuse. When iron carbonyl‐complexed soybean oil is heated at 180‐200C at CO pressures of 1090‐3750 psi, 90‐97% of the complex is decomposed into Fe(CO)5 and conjugated soybean oil. At 180C and 3600 psi CO, 84% of the Fe(CO)5 is recovered, and 82% of the polyunsaturates in the oil is conjugated. At 200C and 1090 psi CO, 98% of the Fe(CO)5 is recovered, but the oil is less conjugated (75%). The studies point the way to a possibly economical process for conjugating vegetable oils by consecutive reactions with Fe(CO)5 and CO.