Catalytic rearrangement of morphine has been described using palladium black. It is not possible, however, to carry out this process on a large scale that would be suitable for manufacturing since the procedure affords 30-35% of the undesired o-desmethylthebainone along with the desired product. Isolation of the pure product is very tedious and requires extensive purification.
maybe a another catalyst would be better
Preparation of Hydromorphone
A 100 ml three-necked round-bottomed flask equipped with a magnetic stirrer, gas inlet, gas outlet and a thermometer was flushed with nitrogen and charged with anhydrous methanol (10 ml) and methylene chloride (5 ml). The solvent was de-oxygenated by bubbling dry nitrogen through it for 10 minutes. Under a stream of nitrogen, bis(bicyclo›2.2.1.!hepta-2,5-diene)rhodium(I)tetrafluoroborate (112 mg, 0.0003M) and 1,4-bis(diphenyl-phosphino)butane (130 mg, 0.00031M) were added and the orange solution was stirred for 15 minutes at ambient temperature. Next, the solution was hydrogenated by bubbling hydrogen gas for 10 minutes. Excess hydrogen was removed by bubbling nitrogen through the solution for 5 minutes. The solution of the catalyst was warmed to 40.degree. C. and morphine (2.14 g, 0.0075M) was added under a moderate stream of nitrogen. The dark coloured solution was stirred for 4 hours at 40.degree. C. The .sup.1 H NMR of the crude indicated 88% of hydromorphone, 8% of unreacted morphine and 3 to 4% of an unidentified by-product. After removal of the solvents under vacuum, the crude hydromorphone was isolated by flash chromatography (ethyl acetate/methanol 3:1) as a brown solid (1.21 g, 56%) which was purified by recrystallisation from ethanol (25 ml) to give >98% pure hydromorphone (0.75 g, 35%).
both excerpts from US5847142
https://www.thevespiary.org/rhodium/Rhodium/chemistry/dihydromorphinones.html (https://www.thevespiary.org/rhodium/Rhodium/chemistry/dihydromorphinones.html)
in rhodium's site and this is the method that i want to try i was hoping for an educated opinion on this