Alkane characterization tests

Simple alkyl halides respond to the common characterization tests in the same manner as alkanes they are insoluble in cold concentrated sulfuric acid they are inert to bromine in carbon tetrachloride, to aqueous permanganate, and to chromic anhydride. They arc readily distinguished from alkanes, however, by qualitative analysis (Sec. 2.25), which shows the presence of halogen. 

The solvent triangle classification method of Snyder Is the most cosDBon approach to solvent characterization used by chromatographers (510,517). The solvent polarity index, P, and solvent selectivity factors, X), which characterize the relative importemce of orientation and proton donor/acceptor interactions to the total polarity, were based on Rohrscbneider s compilation of experimental gas-liquid distribution constants for a number of test solutes in 75 common, volatile solvents. Snyder chose the solutes nitromethane, ethanol and dloxane as probes for a solvent s capacity for orientation, proton acceptor and proton donor capacity, respectively. The influence of solute molecular size, solute/solvent dispersion interactions, and solute/solvent induction interactions as a result of solvent polarizability were subtracted from the experimental distribution constants first multiplying the experimental distribution constant by the solvent molar volume and thm referencing this quantity to the value calculated for a hypothetical n-alkane with a molar volume identical to the test solute. Each value was then corrected empirically to give a value of zero for the polar distribution constant of the test solutes for saturated hydrocarbon solvents. These residual, values were supposed to arise from inductive and... 

Attempts have recently been made to prepare solid acids by loading triflic acid into various inert oxides including silica,184 titania,185,186 and zirconia.187,188 Silica functionalized with anchored aminopropyl groups was also used to immobilize triflic acid.189 These new catalysts have been tested in a variety of organic transformations, such as alkane-alkene alkylation, Friedel-Crafts acylation, alkene dimerization, and acetalization. Silica nanoboxes prepared by dealumination of Na-X- and Ca-A-type zeolites were also loaded with triflic acid up to 32 wt%.190 The materials were thoroughly characterized but have not been tested as catalysts. 

When metal centers act in conjunction with acid sites on the zeolite, bifunctional catalysis can occur (e.g., Pd/HY). This type of catalysis is used mainly for the hydrocracking and isomerization of long-chain n-alkanes. For example, the rates of formation of 2- and 5-methylnonane isomers obtained from n-decane isomerization over bifunctional zeolite catalysts depend on the size and structure of the zeolites used. This reaction has been developed as a test reaction to characterize zeolite structures (17-19). 

Each of these groups of phases includes the numerous items of various trade names, different average molecular weights, viscosity, thermal stability, and so forth, but all of them are very close to each other by polarity. Up to the middle of the 1970s, the preferred nonpolar phase was squalane (isoprenoid alkane C30H62). This phase is no longer used because of its low thermal stability (only about 110°C). However, this obsolete phase maintains its importance as a nonpolar standard in gas chromatography. Other phases may be characterized by differences of RI values of specially selected test compounds between the phase under consideration and squalane, for example ... 

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