Alkali hydroxides, reactions

The formation of the above anions ("enolate type) depend on equilibria between the carbon compounds, the base, and the solvent. To ensure a substantial concentration of the anionic synthons in solution the pA" of both the conjugated acid of the base and of the solvent must be higher than the pAT -value of the carbon compound. Alkali hydroxides in water (p/T, 16), alkoxides in the corresponding alcohols (pAT, 20), sodium amide in liquid ammonia (pATj 35), dimsyl sodium in dimethyl sulfoxide (pAT, = 35), sodium hydride, lithium amides, or lithium alkyls in ether or hydrocarbon solvents (pAT, > 40) are common combinations used in synthesis. Sometimes the bases (e.g. methoxides, amides, lithium alkyls) react as nucleophiles, in other words they do not abstract a proton, but their anion undergoes addition and substitution reactions with the carbon compound. If such is the case, sterically hindered bases are employed. A few examples are given below (H.O. House, 1972 I. Kuwajima, 1976). 

The presence of catalyst residues, such as alkali hydroxide or alkali acetate, a by-product of the hydrolysis reaction, is known to decrease the thermal stability of poly(vinyl alcohol). Transforming these compounds into mote inert compounds and removal through washing are both methods that have been pursued. The use of mineral acids such as sulfuric acid (258), phosphoric acid (259), and OfXv o-phosphotic acid (260) has been reported as means for achieving increased thermal stability of the resulting poly(vinyl alcohol). 

The reaction can be performed with base catalysis as well as acid catalysis. The former is more common here the enolizable carbonyl compound 1 is depro-tonated at the a-carbon by base (e.g. alkali hydroxide) to give the enolate anion 5, which is stabilized by resonance ... 

Diketones 1 can be converted into the salt of an a-hydroxy carboxylic acid upon treatment with alkali hydroxide after acidic workup the free a-hydroxy carboxylic acid 2 is obtained. A well-known example is the rearrangement of benzil (R, R = phenyl) into benzilic acid (2-hydroxy-2,2-diphenyl acetic acid). The substituents should not bear hydrogens a to the carbonyl group, in order to avoid competitive reactions, e.g. the aldol reaction. 

Aldehydes 1 that have no a-hydrogen give the Cannizzaro reaction upon treatment with a strong base, e.g. an alkali hydroxide.In this disproportionation reaction one molecule is reduced to the corresponding alcohol 2, while a second one is oxidized to the carboxylic acid 3. With aldehydes that do have a-hydrogens, the aldol reaction takes place preferentially. 

When the arenediazonium compound 1 is treated with sodium acetate, instead of alkali hydroxide, the reaction proceeds via an intermediate nitroso compound, and is called the Hey reaction. 

The a -halosulfone, required for the Ramberg-Backlund reaction, can for example be prepared from a sulfide by reaction with thionyl chloride (or with N-chlorosuccinimide) to give an a-chlorosulfide, followed by oxidation to the sulfone—e.g. using m-chloroperbenzoic acid. As base for the Ramberg-Backlund reaction have been used alkoxides—e.g. potassium t-butoxide in an etheral solvent, as well as aqueous alkali hydroxide. In the latter case the use of a phase-transfer catalyst may be of advantage. ... 

The classical procedure for the Wolff-Kishner reduction—i.e. the decomposition of the hydrazone in an autoclave at 200 °C—has been replaced almost completely by the modified procedure after Huang-Minlon The isolation of the intermediate is not necessary with this variant instead the aldehyde or ketone is heated with excess hydrazine hydrate in diethyleneglycol as solvent and in the presence of alkali hydroxide for several hours under reflux. A further improvement of the reaction conditions is the use of potassium tcrt-butoxide as base and dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) as solvent the reaction can then proceed already at room temperature. ... 

The alkali metals react vigorously with water (Figure 20.6) to evolve hydrogen and form a water solution of the alkali hydroxide. The reaction of sodium is typical ... 

In the historical introduction to this book (Sec. 1.1) it was mentioned that the discoverer of diazo compounds, Peter Griess, realized quite early (1864 a) that these species could react with alkali hydroxides. Thirty years later Schraube and Schmidt (1894) found that the primary product from the addition of a hydroxide ion to a diazo compound can isomerize to form a secondary product. In this section we will discuss the equilibria of the first acid-base process of aromatic diazonium ions. In the following section additional acid-base reactions will be treated in connection with the isomerism of addition products of hydroxide ions to diazonium ions. 

Nucleophilic addition to a, -unsaturated sulfones has long been known. For example, treatment of divinyl sulfone with sodium hydroxide has been known to afford bis( -hydroxyethyl) sulfone "", while the reaction of a- and -naphthyl allyl sulfones and allyl benzyl sulfone " with alkali hydroxide or alkoxide gave -hydroxy or alkoxy derivatives. In the latter reaction, the allyl group underwent prototropy to the 1-propenyl group, which in a subsequent step underwent nucleophilic attack . Amines, alcohols and sulfides are known to add readily to a, -unsaturated sulfones, and these addition reactions have been studied widely. In this section, the addition of carbon nucleophiles to a, ji-unsaturated sulfones and the reactions of the resulting a-sulfonyl carbanions will be examined. 

For reactions that are traditionally performed in hydroxylic solvents or in polar aprotic solvents, PTC has the following advantages no need for expensive aprotic solvents, shorter reaction time and/or lower reaction temperature, use of aqueous alkali hydroxides instead of other expensive bases. Several examples are given in Section 4.2.2. 

Although organosilanes appear to react slowly (if at all) with water alone, in the presence of acids or bases (e.g., alkali metal hydroxides), reactions to give a silanol and H2 are rapid, with bases being particularly powerful catalysts. The evolution of H2 in this type of reaction may be used as both a qualitative and a quantitative test for Si-H bonds, and the mechanism of the acid and the base hydrolysis has been discussed in detail (30,31). This hydrolytic method is not very common for the preparation of silanols that are to be isolated, because both acids and bases catalyze the condensation of silanols to siloxanes, and therefore, only compounds containing large substituents are conveniently made in this way. If an anhydrous alkali metal salt is used, a metal siloxide may be isolated and subsequently hydrolyzed to give the silanol [Eq. (10)] (32). 

Freeder, B. G. et al., J. Loss Prev. Process Ind., 1988, 1, 164-168 Accidental contamination of a 90 kg cylinder of ethylene oxide with a little sodium hydroxide solution led to explosive failure of the cylinder over 8 hours later [1], Based on later studies of the kinetics and heat release of the poly condensation reaction, it was estimated that after 8 hours and 1 min, some 12.7% of the oxide had condensed with an increase in temperature from 20 to 100°C. At this point the heat release rate was calculated to be 2.1 MJ/min, and 100 s later the temperature and heat release rate would be 160° and 1.67 MJ/s respectively, with 28% condensation. Complete reaction would have been attained some 16 s later at a temperature of 700°C [2], Precautions designed to prevent explosive polymerisation of ethylene oxide are discussed, including rigid exclusion of acids covalent halides, such as aluminium chloride, iron(III) chloride, tin(IV) chloride basic materials like alkali hydroxides, ammonia, amines, metallic potassium and catalytically active solids such as aluminium oxide, iron oxide, or rust [1] A comparative study of the runaway exothermic polymerisation of ethylene oxide and of propylene oxide by 10 wt% of solutions of sodium hydroxide of various concentrations has been done using ARC. Results below show onset temperatures/corrected adiabatic exotherm/maximum pressure attained and heat of polymerisation for the least (0.125 M) and most (1 M) concentrated alkali solutions used as catalysts. 

The primary synthetic route proceeds via oxidative dimerization of 2-aminoan-thraquinone in the presence of an alkali hydroxide. 2-aminoanthraquinone, for instance, is fused with potassium hydroxide/sodium hydroxide at 220 to 225°C in the presence of sodium nitrate as an oxidant. New techniques involve air oxidation of 1-aminoanthraquinone at 210 to 220°C in a potassium phenolate/sodium acetate melt or in the presence of small amounts of dimethylsulfoxide. A certain amount of water which is formed during the reaction may be removed by distillation in order to improve both efficiency and yield. 

By Dismutation.—Hydrazobenzene (1-2 g.) is melted in a test tube over a small flame. The orange-red liquid thus produced is carefully heated until the aniline which has been formed begins to boil. On cooling, a semi-solid mixture of red azobenzene and aniline is obtained. The aniline can be shaken out with water and identified by means of the bleaching powder reaction. The azobenzene may be recrystallised from alcohol as described above. If it is desired to isolate the aniline also, when larger amounts of hydrazobenzene are used, the base is separated from the azobenzene by means of dilute acetic acid. From the solution of its acetate the aniline is then liberated with concentrated alkali hydroxide solution, extracted with ether, and purified in the manner already described. 

The key to the attachment of the donor to the polymer lies in the preparation of suitably monofunctionalized donors. A variety of synthetic procedures have been employed and are outlined in Table II. Conversion of the functionalized alkali salt derivatives were accomplished by reaction with the alkali hydroxide (CsOH or KOH in alcohol) or by reaction with an alkali hydride (i.e. KH in tetrahydrofuran). The latter reaction was found to proceed more cleanly and conveniently. 

From the recent advances the heteroatom-carbon bond formation should be mentioned. As for the other reactions in Chapter 13 the amount of literature produced in less than a decade is overwhelming. Widespread attention has been paid to the formation of carbon-to-nitrogen bonds, carbon-to-oxygen bonds, and carbon-to-sulfur bonds [29], The thermodynamic driving force is smaller in this instance, but excellent conversions have been achieved. Classically, the introduction of amines in aromatics involves nitration, reduction, and alkylation. Nitration can be dangerous and is not environmentally friendly. Phenols are produced via sulfonation and reaction of the sulfonates with alkali hydroxide, or via oxidation of cumene, with acetone as the byproduct. 

Organic groups were detected on the surface after grinding of silica in the presence of organic solvents. Silicon-carbon bonds are also formed by nucleophilic attack on the siloxane bonds with lithium organic compounds. This reaction is analogous to the dissolution of silica with alkali hydroxides. 

As described, other nucleophilic reactions in the anthraquinone series also involve the production of anion-radicals. These reactions are as follows Hydroxylation of 9,10-anthraquinone-2-sulfonic acid (Fomin and Gurdzhiyan 1978) hydroxylation, alkoxylation, and cyanation in the homoaromatic ring of 9,10-anthraquinone condensed with 2,1,5-oxadiazole ring at positions 1 and 2 (Gorelik and Puchkova 1969). These studies suggest that one-electron reduction of quinone proceeds in parallel to the main nucleophilic reaction. The concentration of anthraquinone-2-sulfonate anion-radicals, for example, becomes independent of the duration time of the reaction with an alkali hydroxide, and the total yield of the anion-radicals does not exceed 10%. Inhibitors (oxygen, potassium ferricyanide) prevent formation of anion-radicals, and the yield of 2-hydroxyanthraquinone even increases somewhat. In this case, the anion-radical pathway is not the main one. The same conclusion is made in the case of oxadiazoloanthraquinone. 

The condensations were catalyzed by bases, such as alkali hydroxide or alkoxide, triethylamine, and piperidine or its acetate. Some reactions (75AG840 88AP757) proceed much more smoothly with diethyl acetone-dicarboxylate (even in the presence of diethylamine or ethyldiisopropyl-amine) than with, e.g., dibenzylketone (only in the presence of potassium hydroxide/morpholine or DBU). Yields vary significantly because side reactions are possible. 

Reductions with zinc are carried out in aqueous [160 as well as anhydrous solvents [163 and at different pHs of the medium. The choice of the reaction conditions is very important since entirely different results may be obtained under different conditions. While reduction of aromatic nitro groups in alkali hydroxides or aqueous ammonia gives hydrazo compounds, reduction in aqueous ammonium chloride gives hydroxylamines, and reduction in acidic medium amines (p. 73). Of organic solvents the most efficient seem to be dimethyl formamide [164 and acetic anhydride [755]. However, alcohols have... 

The reaction is usually performed with homogeneous basic catalysts such as alkali hydroxides, alkoxides, and tetraalkyl ammonium hydroxide (161,162). The mechanism accepted for this transformation starts with the abstraction by the base catalyst of a proton from the hydroxyl group of the alcohol to generate the alkoxide anion, which reacts with acrylonitrile to form the 3-alkoxypropanenitrile anion. The 3-alkoxypropanenitrile anion abstracts a proton from the catalyst to yield 3-alkoxypropane nitrile. 

Urea-formaldehyde resins are generally prepared by condensation in aqueous basic medium. Depending on the intended application, a 50-100% excess of formaldehyde is used. All bases are suitable as catalysts provided they are partially soluble in water. The most commonly used catalysts are the alkali hydroxides. The pH value of the alkaline solution should not exceed 8-9, on account of the possible Cannizzaro reaction of formaldehyde. Since the alkalinity of the solution drops in the course of the reaction, it is necessary either to use a buffer solution or to keep the pH constant by repeated additions of aqueous alkali hydroxide. Under these conditions the reaction time is about 10-20 min at 50-60 C. The course of the condensation can be monitored by titration of the unused formaldehyde with sodium hydrogen sulfite or hydroxylamine hydrochloride. These determinations must, however, be carried out quickly and at as low temperature as possible (10-15 °C), otherwise elimination of formaldehyde from the hydroxymethyl compounds already formed can falsify the analysis. The isolation of the soluble condensation products is not possible without special precautions, on account of the facile back-reaction it can be done by pumping off the water in vacuum below 60 °C imder weakly alkaline conditions, or better by careful freeze-drying. However, the further condensation to crosslinked products is nearly always performed with the original aqueous solution. 

Reaction with alkali hydroxide produces cobalt(ll) hydroxide ... 

Reactions with alkali hydroxide yield cobalt(II) hydroxide. Cobalt(II) oxide is readily reduced by hydrogen, carbon or carbon monoxide to cobalt ... 

Reaction of alkali hydroxide with copper(I) chloride ... 

PH4I + H2O PHs + H3O+ r Reaction with alkali hydroxide in the cold liberates phosphine ... 

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