Adipic acid precursors

Adipic Acid Precursor Other Carbonylation Products Carbon Dioxide Dimethyl Oxalate... 

Palladium catalyst stability, recovery and recycle are the key to viable commercial technology. Continuous palladium recovery and recycle at 99.9% efficiency is critical to the economics of the process. Traditional catalyst recovery methods fail since the adipic acid precursor, dimethyl hex- -enedioate, is high boiling and the palladium catalytic species are thermally unstable above 125 C. Because of this problem, a non-traditional solvent extraction approach to catalyst recovery has been worked out and implemented at the pilot plant scale. Since patents have not issued, process detail on catalyst separation, secondary palladium recovery, and product recovery cannot be included in this review. 

Environmental Aspects. Airborne particulate matter (187) and aerosol (188) samples from around the world have been found to contain a variety of organic monocarboxyhc and dicarboxyhc acids, including adipic acid. Traces of the acid found ia southern California air were related both to automobile exhaust emission (189) and, iadirecfly, to cyclohexene as a secondary aerosol precursor (via ozonolysis) (190). Dibasic acids (eg, succinic acid) have been found even ia such unlikely sources as the Murchison meteorite (191). PubHc health standards for adipic acid contamination of reservoir waters were evaluated with respect to toxicity, odor, taste, transparency, foam, and other criteria (192). BiodegradabiUty of adipic acid solutions was also evaluated with respect to BOD/theoretical oxygen demand ratio, rate, lag time, and other factors (193). 

Furfural is a natural monomer obtained by the steam acid digestion of corncobs, bagasse, rice husks, oat hulls, or similar materials. It acts as the precursor for the preparation of two important monomers (Scheme 1), adipic acid and hexamethylene diamine, used in the... 

The main use of acrolein is to produce acrylic acid and its esters. Acrolein is also an intermediate in the synthesis of pharmaceuticals and herhicides. It may also he used to produce glycerol hy reaction with isopropanol (discussed later in this chapter). 2-Hexanedial, which could he a precursor for adipic acid and hexamethylene-diamine, may he prepared from acrolein Tail to tail dimenization of acrolein using ruthenium catalyst produces trans-2-hexanedial. The trimer, trans-6-hydroxy-5-formyl-2,7-octadienal is coproduced. Acrolein, may also he a precursor for 1,3-propanediol. Hydrolysis of acrolein produces 3-hydroxypropionalde-hyde which could he hydrogenated to 1,3-propanediol. ... 

Cyclohexane is also a precursor for adipic acid. Oxidizing cyclohexane in the liquid-phase at lower temperatures and for longer residence times (than for KA oil) with a cobalt acetate catalyst produces adipic acid ... 

The diamine and diacid monomers used to make type AABB nylons are typically rather difficult to handle in their pure form. Diamines are liquids or semisolids at room temperature, while the diacids are crystalline solids. These monomers become much more manageable when they are combined to form nylon salts, as shown in Fig. 23.7 a). Nylon salts are solids that can be easily handled and ensure a stoichiometric balance between the diacid and diamine, which is necessary to produce high molecular weight polymers. In the case of nylon 66, the precursor salt is made by boiling adipic acid and hexamethylene diamine in methanol, from which the nylon salt precipitates. 

Adipic acid is of considerable importance since it is a precursor to nylon and polyester, which are extensively used in many products. Between two and three million tonnes are produced worldwide each year. Currently, its main method of manufacture is a costly, multistep process involving concentrated nitric acid. Nitrous oxide is produced as a by-product in such quantities that they measurably contribute to global warming and ozone depletion [24], A cleaner alternative to this process is clearly highly desirable. 

Oxidation is the first step for producing molecules with a very wide range of functional groups because oxygenated compounds are precursors to many other products. For example, alcohols may be converted to ethers, esters, alkenes, and, via nucleophilic substitution, to halogenated or amine products. Ketones and aldehydes may be used in condensation reactions to form new C-C double bonds, epoxides may be ring opened to form diols and polymers, and, finally, carboxylic acids are routinely converted to esters, amides, acid chlorides and acid anhydrides. Oxidation reactions are some of the largest scale industrial processes in synthetic chemistry, and the production of alcohols, ketones, aldehydes, epoxides and carboxylic acids is performed on a mammoth scale. For example, world production of ethylene oxide is estimated at 58 million tonnes, 2 million tonnes of adipic acid are made, mainly as a precursor in the synthesis of nylons, and 8 million tonnes of terephthalic acid are produced each year, mainly for the production of polyethylene terephthalate) [1]. 

Oxidation of -hexane with Co AlPO-18 with 10% rather than 4% of the framework AP ions replaced with Co resulted in a dramatic enhancement in the formation of adipic acid [65]. It was argued that in these catalysts two Co ions are ideally separated by 7-8 A on the inner wall of the zeolite, allowing both methyl groups unfettered access to catalytically active sites. Furthermore, it was demonstrated that 1,6-hexanediol and 1,6-hexanedial served as precursors to the adipic acid. On the other hand, 1-hexanol, hexanoic acid, and hexanal, which were also formed in the reaction, did not serve as precursors for the adipic acid. It is tempting to suggest that the mono-oxidized hexane products were produced in regions of the zeolite where simultaneous access to two catalytically active sites was not possible. 

Carbon monoxide insertion into the carbon-palladium bond of 4, followed by nucleophilic displacement with methoxide, gives a 4 1 mixture of trans and cis-dimethyl hex- endioate which is the desired l, 4-dicarbonylaton precursor to adipic acid. 

An attractive alternative to building a world scale adipic acid plant is to construct a specialty smaller volume oxycarbonylation plant which is capable of exclusively producing the more valuable precursors for pelargonic and sebacic acid. Oxycarbonylation process conditions can be controlled to give methyl, 4-pentadienoate which is the product from butadiene mono-carbonylation(39,40). Methyl, 4-pentadienoate can react in a subsequent step with butadiene to give an unsaturated pelargonic acid precursor in high yield(41). Methyl, 4-pentadienoate... 

Ammonia is used for the manufacture of fertilizers or for the manufacture of other nitrogen-containing compounds used for fertilizer or, to a lesser extent, explosives, plastics, and fibers. Explosives made from ammonia are ammonium nitrate and (via nitric acid) the nitroglycerin used in dynamite. Plastics include (via urea) urea-formaldehyde and melamine-formaldehyde resins. Some ammonia ends up in fibers, since it is used to make hexameth-ylenediamine (HMDA), adipic acid, or caprolactam, all nylon precursors. 

P-Lactam Antibiotics.—The tripeptide [as (159)] isolated from Penicillium chry-sogenum151 has been accepted as a likely key intermediate in the biosynthesis of penicillins with penicillin N (158), the first of the fi -lactams to be formed.152 It has been shown recently that this tripeptide is formed from radio-active L-a-amino-adipic acid, L-valine, and L-cysteine in P. chrysogenum and has the absolute configuration (159).153 Moreover, it has been shown to be a precursor for penicillin... 

The ester can be hydrolyzed to adipic acid, a nylon-6 precursor. The reaction proceeds stepwise and involves Co—COOMe species which react with butadiene under insertion ... 

The telomeric aliphatic polyesters were produced by polycondensation based on adipic acid and hexamethylene glycol in various stoichiometric amounts to generate polyesters of different end group functionality. The polyesters of different molar mass and corresponding reference samples were synthesized at the Center for Macromolecular Chemistry, Berlin, Germany. These types of polyesters are widely used as lacquers and precursors for the production of several important polyurethanes. 

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