Alkane alkylations, thermodynamics

Alkylation with Alkanes. Alkylation of aromatic hydrocarbons with alkanes, although possible, is more difficult than with other alkylating agents (alkyl halides, alkenes, alcohols, etc.).178 This is due to the unfavorable thermodynamics of the reaction in which hydrogen must be oxidatively removed. 

A simple criterion, which has the same nature as Ath of the catalyst, was used to represent the electron donor power during reaction the absolute value of the potential ionization difference. A/ = /r — /p, weighed by the ratio p/ r of carbon in product and reactant molecules respectively. The linear correlations obtained between A/ and Ath show that their slope is related to the electron donor power of the reactant, positive when C-C (alkanes, alkyl-aromatics) or C-H (alcohols) bonds are to be transformed, and negative when C=C bonds are concerned. The intercept depends on the extent of oxidation, and its absolute value increases from mild to total oxidation, respectively. A main difficulty is the actual state of cations at the steady state, but each time accurate experiments allow determining the mean valence state, the calculated Ath fits well the correlations. These lines may be used as a predictive trend, and allow, for example, to precise that more basic catalysts are needed for alkane ODH than for its mild oxidation to oxygenated compound. As a variety of solids have been catalytically experienced in literature, it would be worthwhile to consider far more examples than what is proposed here to refine the relationships observed. Finally, theoretical considerations are proposed to tentatively account for these linear relationships. Optical basicity would be closely related to the free enthalpy, and, as an intensive thermodynamic parameter, it is normal that it could be related to several characteristic properties, including now catalytic properties. 

The surface tension of a liquid is a measure of its tendency to minimize its surface area. The models for surface tension found in the literature are built on thermodynamic approaches, and they relate surface tension to a number of other physical properties, or to combinations of them. However, the literature contains little concerning the effect of specific molecular features on surface tension and provides no method to calculate surface tension from molecular structure. A set of 146 values for surface tension at 30 °C was extracted from a paper by Jasper that reports values for more than 2200 pure compounds with diverse structures, often at several different temperatures and with an experimental error of approximately 0.10 dyn cm . The compounds were encoded using a variety of topological, geometric, and electronic descriptors. A model was developed for a combined set of alkanes, alkyl esters, and alkyl alcohols which utilized 10 descriptors and had s = 0.4 dyn cm (1.8% of the mean). This model was then used to predict the surface tensions for 20 compounds not used in model development. 

E. L. Shock (1990) provides a different interpretation of these results he criticizes that the redox state of the reaction mixture was not checked in the Miller/Bada experiments. Shock also states that simple thermodynamic calculations show that the Miller/Bada theory does not stand up. To use terms like instability and decomposition is not correct when chemical compounds (here amino acids) are present in aqueous solution under extreme conditions and are aiming at a metastable equilibrium. Shock considers that oxidized and metastable carbon and nitrogen compounds are of greater importance in hydrothermal systems than are reduced compounds. In the interior of the Earth, CO2 and N2 are in stable redox equilibrium with substances such as amino acids and carboxylic acids, while reduced compounds such as CH4 and NH3 are not. The explanation lies in the oxidation state of the lithosphere. Shock considers the two mineral systems FMQ and PPM discussed above as particularly important for the system seawater/basalt rock. The FMQ system acts as a buffer in the oceanic crust. At depths of around 1.3 km, the PPM system probably becomes active, i.e., N2 and CO2 are the dominant species in stable equilibrium conditions at temperatures above 548 K. When the temperature of hydrothermal solutions falls (below about 548 K), they probably pass through a stability field in which CH4 and NII3 predominate. If kinetic factors block the achievement of equilibrium, metastable compounds such as alkanes, carboxylic acids, alkyl benzenes and amino acids are formed between 423 and 293 K. 

For the non-oxidative activation of light alkanes, the direct alkylation of toluene with ethane was chosen as an industrially relevant model reaction. The catalytic performance of ZSM-5 zeolites, which are good catalysts for this model reaction, was compared to the one of zeolite MCM-22, which is used in industry for the alkylation of aromatics with alkenes in the liquid phase. The catalytic experiments were carried out in a fixed-bed reactor and in a batch reactor. The results show that the shape-selective properties of zeolite ZSM-5 are more appropriate to favor the dehydroalkylation reaction, whereas on zeolite MCM-22 with its large cavities in the pore system and half-cavities on the external surface the thermodynamically favored side reaction with its large transition state, the disproportionation of toluene, prevails. 

Sigma-bond metathesis at hypovalent metal centers Thermodynamically, reaction of H2 with a metal-carbon bond to produce new C—H and M—H bonds is a favorable process. If the metal has a lone pair available, a viable reaction pathway is initial oxidative addition of H2 to form a metal alkyl dihydride, followed by stepwise reductive elimination (the microscopic reverse of oxidative addition) of alkane. On the other hand, hypovalent complexes lack the... 

The OPLS parameters (charges and Lennard-Jones terms) were obtained primarily via Monte Carlo simulations with particular emphasis on reproducing the experimental densities and heats of vaporization of liquids. Those simulations were performed iteratively as part of the parametrization, so better agreement with experiment is obtained than in previous studies where the simulations were usually carried out after the parametrization. Once the OPLS parametrization was completed, further simulations were also performed in order to test the new set of parameters in the calculation of other thermodynamic and structural properties of the system, besides its density and its heat of vaporization. Parameters have now been generated, among others, for water, alkanes, alkenes, alcohols, amides, alkyl chlorides, amines, carboxylic esters and acids, various sulfur and nitrogen compounds, and nitriles. A protein force field has been established as well. 

Another effective way of staying clear of the thermodynamic barriers of C-H activation/substitution is the use of the c-bond metathesis reaction as the crucial elementary step. This mechanism avoids intermediacy of reactive metal species that undergo oxidative additions of alkanes, but instead the alkyl intermediate does a o-bond metathesis reaction with a new substrate molecule. Figure 19.13 illustrates the basic sequence [20],... 

In the case of C4-hydrocarbons, the use of acid or superacid solids will depend on both the acid strength required in each reaction and the reaction conditions required to optimize the thermodynamic equilibrium (Figure 13.3). For example, catalysts with very high acid strength could be substituted for a solid with a lower acidity by increasing reaction temperature. This has been proposed in both the isomerization of lineal alkanes and in the alkylation of isobutene with olefins, although the thermodynamic equilibrium should also be considered. 

The most useful characteristic of the micelle arises from its inner (alkyl chain) part (Figure 3.17). The inner part consists of alkyl groups that are closely packed. It is known that these clusters behave as liquid paraffin (Cn H2n+2). The alkyl chains are thus not fully extended. Hence, one would expect that this inner hydrophobic part of the micelle should exhibit properties that are common to alkanes, such as ability to solubilize all kinds of water-insoluble organic compounds. The solute enters the alkyl core of the micelle and it swells. Equilibrium is reached when the ratio between moles soluteimoles detergent is reached corresponding to the thermodynamic value. 

In the acid-catalyzed isomerization of straight-chain alkanes to higher-octane branched ones, after initial protolytic ionization, alkyl and hydrogen shifts in the formed carbocations lead to the most branched and therefore thermodynamically preferred, generally tertiary, carbocations. Intermolecular hydrogen transfer from excess alkane then produces the isomeric isoalkane with the formed new carboca-tion reentering the reaction cycle. 

Positional Isomerization. A different type of isomerization, substituent migration, takes place when di- and polyalkylbenzenes (naphthalenes, etc.) are treated with acidic catalysts. Similar to the isomerization of alkanes, thermodynamic equilibria of neutral arylalkanes and the corresponding carbocations are different. This difference permits the synthesis of isomers in amounts exceeding thermodynamic equilibrium when appropriate reaction conditions (excess acid, fast hydride transfer) are applied. Most of these studies were carried out in connection with the alkylation of aromatic hydrocarbons, and further details are found in Section 5.1.4. 

Here R denotes the primary alkyl radical derived from the alkane RH, and ROO is a peroxy radical, where the O2 may be bound at a primary, secondary, or tertiary site in the alkyl radical.2 Formation of ROO is thermodynamically favored in the low-temperature regime, while at higher temperatures the equilibrium is shifted to the left, and the ROO radical dissociates rapidly back to reactants. 

A certain kind of radical transfer can be modelled by the transfer of a hydrogen atom from an alkane molecule to a small alkyl radical. This reaction was studied in detail in the gas phase. With hydrocarbon partners, heats of reaction are a fairly safe measure of the relative rate of transfer, as the pre-exponential Arrhenius factors remain approximately constant for a series of transfers to a given radical. Tabulated thermodynamic data indicate, however, [31, 32] that the correlation between the heat of reaction and the transfer rate is not valid for reactions of a radical with polar substrates [32, 33], In condensed phases, transfer reactions have not been sufficiently studied. Polymerizations themselves are the source of the most valuable, though incomplete, information. 

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