Palladium complexes of new bulky fluorinated diphosphines give particularly active and regioselective catalysts for hydroxycarbonylation of styrene.

Some new bulky fluorinated diphosphines have been prepared and converted to palladium dichloride complexes that have been found to give increased regioselectivity and activity over other Pd-diphosphine systems when used as catalysts for hydroxycarbonylation of styrene.