Alkynes competitive adsorption

The nature of the solvent in liquid-phase alkyne hydrogenations and the extent to which it can influence the competitive adsorption factors needed to attain selectivity should also be considered. The semihydrogenation of 1-octyne over a series of Pd/Nylon-66 catalysts of varying metal load gave 1-octene with a selectivity of 100% over a wide range of metal loads when the reaction was run in heptane.38 n-propanol, however, reaction selectivity increased with decreasing metal load. Apparently the alcohol interacted with the catalyst to modify the active sites and influenced the relative adsorption characteristics of the acetylenic and olefinic species. This can affect reaction selectivity particularly if reactant diffusion assumes some importance in the reaction. 

The observation of negative apparent activation energy can most simply be interpreted in terms of the competition between the adsorption and desorption of methylacetylene on the surface. This qualitative explanation is illustrated in Figure 3, where the steady-state production of trimethylbenzene is compared with the TPD trace of methylacetylene. The fall off in steady state cyclotrimerization rate matches the tail of the desorption spectrum and illustrates the role of reactant desorption at higher temperatiu-es controlling the availability of alkyne monomers and thus the overall cyclotrimerization rate in this temperatime/pressure regime. 

It was shown that with a Pd/C catalyst in the liquid phase terminal triple bonds were saturated faster than internal ones, and both hydrogenated faster than terminal or internal double bonds in competitive processes (Eqn. 16.5). Further, alkene isomerization generally does not take place over palladium catalysts when alkynes are present. This selective hydrogenation depends on the stronger adsorption of an alkyne compared to an alkene. It is also possible that steric factors can influence the selectivity in the competitive semihydrogenation of an acetylene and an olefmic group in the same molecule. When the double bond and the triple bond are c/s to each other as in 7, selective adsorption of the acetylene... 

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