Alkyl hydroperoxides process

Cumene Hydroperoxide Process for Phenol and Acetone. Ben2ene is alkylated to cumene, which is oxidized to cumene hydroperoxide, which ia turn is cleaved to phenol and acetone. 

Propylene oxide [75-56-9] is manufactured by either the chlorohydrin process or the peroxidation (coproduct) process. In the chlorohydrin process, chlorine, propylene, and water are combined to make propylene chlorohydrin, which then reacts with inorganic base to yield the oxide. The peroxidation process converts either isobutane or ethylbenzene direcdy to an alkyl hydroperoxide which then reacts with propylene to make propylene oxide, and /-butyl alcohol or methylbenzyl alcohol, respectively. Table 1 Hsts producers of propylene glycols in the United States. 

The addition of an oxygen atom to an olefin to generate an epoxide is often catalyzed by soluble molybdenum complexes. The use of alkyl hydroperoxides such as tert-huty hydroperoxide leads to the efficient production of propylene oxide (qv) from propylene in the so-called Oxirane (Halcon or ARCO) process (79). 

Unsymmetrical dialkyl peroxides are obtained by the reaction of alkyl hydroperoxides with a substrate, ie, R H, from which a hydrogen can be abstracted readily in the presence of certain cobalt, copper, or manganese salts (eq. 30). However, this process is not efficient since two moles of the hydroperoxide are consumed per mole of dialkyl peroxide produced. In addition, side reactions involving free radicals produce undesired by-products (44,66). 

A typical phenol plant based on the cumene hydroperoxide process can be divided into two principal areas. In the reaction area, cumene, formed by alkylation of benzene and propylene, is oxidized to form cumene hydroperoxide (CHP). The cumene hydroperoxide is concentrated and cleaved to produce phenol and acetone. By-products of the oxidation reaction are acetophenone and dimethyl benzyl alcohol (DMBA). DMBA is dehydrated in the cleavage reaction to produce alpha-methylstyrene (AMS). 

Alkyl hydroperoxides give alkoxy radicals and the hydroxyl radical. r-Butyl hydroperoxide is often used as a radical source. Detailed studies on the mechanism of the decomposition indicate that it is a more complicated process than simple unimolecular decomposition. The alkyl hydroperoxides are also sometimes used in conjunction with a transition-metal salt. Under these conditions, an alkoxy radical is produced, but the hydroxyl portion appears as hydroxide ion as the result of one-electron reduction by the metal ion. ... 

There are several available terminal oxidants for the transition metal-catalyzed epoxidation of olefins (Table 6.1). Typical oxidants compatible with most metal-based epoxidation systems are various alkyl hydroperoxides, hypochlorite, or iodo-sylbenzene. A problem associated with these oxidants is their low active oxygen content (Table 6.1), while there are further drawbacks with these oxidants from the point of view of the nature of the waste produced. Thus, from an environmental and economical perspective, molecular oxygen should be the preferred oxidant, because of its high active oxygen content and since no waste (or only water) is formed as a byproduct. One of the major limitations of the use of molecular oxygen as terminal oxidant for the formation of epoxides, however, is the poor product selectivity obtained in these processes [6]. Aerobic oxidations are often difficult to control and can sometimes result in combustion or in substrate overoxidation. In... 

The mechanism for such a process was explained in terms of a structure as depicted in Figure 6.5. The allylic alcohol and the alkyl hydroperoxide are incorporated into the vanadium coordination sphere and the oxygen transfer from the peroxide to the olefin takes place in an intramolecular fashion (as described above for titanium tartrate catalyst) [30, 32]. 

Similarly, a catalytic route to indigo was developed by Mitsui Toatsu Chemicals (Inoue et al, 1994) to replace the traditional process, which dates back to the nineteenth century (see earlier), and has a low atom efficiency/high E factor (Fig. 2.15). Indole is prepared by vapour-phase reaction of ethylene glycol with aniline in the presence of a supported silver catalyst. The indole is selectively oxidised to indigo with an alkyl hydroperoxide in the presence of a homogeneous molybdenum catalyst. 

In a process known as peroxymercuration, hydrogen peroxide and alkyl hydroperoxides can be alkylated by alkenes in the presence of a suitable mercury(II) salt... 

The molybdenum-catalyzed conversion of alkenes into epoxides by alkyl hydroperoxides is an important commercial process.17,18 The synthetic potential of such reactions in regard to more complex organic molecules has been evaluated19 alkyl hydroperoxides are used as oxidants in the... 

Olefin epoxidation by alkyl hydroperoxides catalyzed by transition metal compounds occupies an important place among modern catalytic oxidation reactions. This process occurs according to the following stoichiometric equation ... 

Hydronium ion, 14 23 Hydroperoxidates, 18 411 Hydroperoxide process, for propylene oxide manufacture, 20 798, 801-806 Hydroperoxides, 14 281, 290-291 18 427-436 alkylation of, 18 445 a-oxygen-substituted, 18 448-460 chemical properties of, 18 430 433 decomposition of, 14 279 18 431-432 liquid-phase epoxidation with, 10 656 physical properties of, 18 427-430 preparation by autoxidation, 18 434 synthesis of, 18 433-435 Hydrophile-lipophile balance system,... 

In the past decade more efficient code and faster computers have allowed the use of electron-correlated methods of calculation and this has opened this area of theoretical chemistry to a wide range of research groups. The present sequel will be focused mainly on recent theoretical studies on a variety of oxidative processes involving oxygen atom transfer. We will include an extensive description of the very recent chemistry of peroxyni-trous acid (HO—ONO), dioxiranes, peracids and alkyl hydroperoxides. Since chemically realistic molecular systems can now be treated at an adequate level of electron-correlated... 

Indeed, several interesting procedures based on three families of active catalysts organometallic complexes, phase-transfer compounds and titanium silicalite (TS-1), and peroxides have been settled and used also in industrial processes in the last decades of the 20th century. The most impressive breakthrough in this field was achieved by Katsuki and Sharpless, who obtained the enantioselective oxidation of prochiral allylic alcohols with alkyl hydroperoxides catalyzed by titanium tetra-alkoxides in the presence of chiral nonracemic tartrates. In fact Sharpless was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2001. 

The transition metal based catalytic species derived from hydrogen peroxide or alkyl hydroperoxides are currently regarded as the most active oxidants for the majority of inorganic and organic substrates " An understanding of the mechanism of these processes is therefore a crucial point in the chemistry of catalytic oxidations. This knowledge allows one to predict not only the nature of the products in a given process, but also the stereochemical outcome in asymmetric reactions. 

The search for a new epoxidation method that would be appropriate for organic synthesis should also, preferably, opt for a catalytic process. Industry has shown the way. It resorts to catalysis for epoxidations of olefins into key intermediates, such as ethylene oxide and propylene oxide. The former is prepared from ethylene and dioxygen with silver oxide supported on alumina as the catalyst, at 270°C (15-16). The latter is prepared from propylene and an alkyl hydroperoxide, with homogeneous catalysis by molybdenum comp e ts( 17) or better (with respect both to conversion and to selectivity) with an heterogeneous Ti(IV) catalyst (18), Mixtures of ethylene and propylene can be epoxidized too (19) by ten-butylhydroperoxide (20) (hereafter referred to as TBHP). 

At elevated temperature alkyl hydroperoxides undergo thermal decomposition to alcohols [Eqs. (9.9)—(9.11)]. This decomposition serves as a major source of free radicals in autoxidation. Because of side reactions, such as p scission of alkylperoxy radicals, this process is difficult to control. Further transformation of the alkoxy... 

Thus, the Milas reagents may be considered to be the progenitors of the metal catalyst/alkyl hydroperoxide reagents5 5 that were later developed cy, inter alia, Halcon, Arco and Shell workers and culminated in the realization of commercial processes for the epoxidation of propylene (reaction II). These reagents involve the very same metal catalysts, e.g. MoVI, WVI, vv and TiIV, as the Milas reagents and they are mechanistically closely related. 

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