ADIPODINITRILE SYNTHESIS

At the cathode, olefins with electron deficient double bonds can be hydrodimer-ized (Eq. 1). This reaction has been developed for acrylonitrile [22] in a technical adipodinitrile synthesis [23] with a scale of more than 300.000 tons per year. The scope of this hydrodimerization has been substantiated with many examples [24-33]. 

Electroorganic synthesis deals with conversion of organic compounds into useful products by anodic oxidation or cathodic reduction. Today there exist literally thousands of published examples of electrosynthesis reactions but only a very small number—certainly not more than several tens—are really exploited commercially, the best known example being the cathodic hydrodimerization of acrylonitrile to adipodinitrile, a precursor to hexam-ethylene diamine, which is the aminoconstituent of nylon 6,6 (779) ... 

Adipodinitrile is an intermediate for hexamethylenediamine, the amine component of nylon 66. The electrochemical process is economically superior to the synthesis of adipodinitrile from cyclohexanone. Today, it essentially competes with the addition reaction of HCN to butadiene. The total capacity of the electrochemical ADN synthesis is currently about 250,000 tonnes/year. The process is industrially fully developed. Recent work 34 347) is aimed at reducing the oxygen evolution potential at the anode in order to save further energy. 

In the synthesis of adipic acid one can start with benzene, phenol, tetrahydrofuran, butadiene, or cyclohexane. Benzene is converted to phenol (e.g., by the cumene process), this is hydrogenated to cyclohexanol, and the cyclohexanone gained by oxidation is then oxidized to adipic acid, HOOC—(CH2)4—COOH, with nitric acid. Cyclohexane can also be oxidized with air to cyclohexanol, from which adipic acid is obtained by direct nitric acid oxidation. Adipic acid can also be produced by saponification of adipodinitrile (adiponitrile), which in turn comes from tetrahydrofuran or butadiene (see below). 

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