1.3- Butadiene chlorination

The industrial use of 1,3-dienes and of their electrophilic reactions has strongly stimulated the field in recent years. Because of the low cost of butadiene, abundantly available from the naphtha cracking process, very large scale applications in the synthesis of polymers, solvents and fine chemicals have been developed, leading to many basic raw materials of the modem chemical industry. For example, the primary steps in the syntheses of acrylonitrile and adiponitrile have been the electrophilic addition of hydrocyanic acid to butadiene. Chlorination of butadiene was the basis of chloroprene synthesis ... 

This process, employed by Toyo Soda in its Shin-Nanyo complex in Japan, carries out butadiene chlorination for the joint manufacture of chloroprene, 1,4-butanediol and tetrahydrofuran by dehydration of the dioL... 

Tri and tetrachlorinated compounds may also be formed. To prevent the excessive production of these polychlorinated derivatives, a butadiene/chlorine molar ratio approaching 6/1 maintained during the reaction, and the reaction mixture is diluted with nitrogen. Under these conditions, the selectivity of the dichlorinated components, for total conversion of chlorine, may be as high as 95 molar per cent The L4-dich2oro 2-butenes content in the mixture of the two dichlorinated compounds is about 60 per cent... 

Process Formaldehyde ethynylation Butadiene acetoxylation, Butadiene chlorination... 

Examples of liquefied compressed gases include carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, anhydrous ammonia, butadiene, chlorine, methyl chloride, methyl mercaptan, sulfur dioxide, vinyl chloride, a number of refrigerant gases including the fluorocarbon gases, and the liquefied petroleum gases (LP-gases) such as butane, isobutane, propane, and propylene. 

Mixtures of 1 2 and 1 4 addition products are obtained when 1 3 butadiene reacts with chlorine or bromine... 

Chlorine Ammonia, acetylene, alcohols, alkanes, benzene, butadiene, carbon disulflde, dibutyl phthalate, ethers, fluorine, glycerol, hydrocarbons, hydrogen, sodium carbide, flnely divided metals, metal acetylides and carbides, nitrogen compounds, nonmetals, nonmetal hydrides, phosphorus compounds, polychlorobi-phenyl, silicones, steel, sulfldes, synthetic rubber, turpentine... 

Mercury(II) oxide Chlorine, hydrazine hydrate, hydrogen peroxide, hypophosphorous acid, magnesium, phosphorus, sulfur, butadiene, hydrocarbons, methanethiol... 

As part of the research described in Fig. 7.5, Winston and Wichacheewaf measured the percentages of carbon and chlorine in copolymers of styrene (molecule 1) and 1-chloro-l,3-butadiene (molecule 2) prepared from various feedstocks. A portion of their data is given below ... 

In a related process, 1,4-dichlorobutene was produced by direct vapor-phase chlorination of butadiene at 160—250°C. The 1,4-dichlorobutenes reacted with aqueous sodium cyanide in the presence of copper catalysts to produce the isomeric 1,4-dicyanobutenes yields were as high as 95% (58). The by-product NaCl could be recovered for reconversion to Na and CI2 via electrolysis. Adiponitrile was produced by the hydrogenation of the dicyanobutenes over a palladium catalyst in either the vapor phase or the Hquid phase (59,60). The yield in either case was 95% or better. This process is no longer practiced by DuPont in favor of the more economically attractive process described below. 

Manufacture via this process has been completely replaced by chlorination of butadiene (3) (see Chlorocarbons and chlorohydrocarbons, chloroprene ElASTOT RS, synthetic, POLYCm OROPRENE). 

Another process, involving chlorination of butadiene, hydrolysis of the dichlorobutene, and hydrogenation of the resulting butenediol, was practiced by Toyo Soda in Japan until the mid-1980s (144). 

At one time, the only commercial route to 2-chloro-1,3-butadiene (chloroprene), the monomer for neoprene, was from acetylene (see Elastomers, synthetic). In the United States, Du Pont operated two plants in which acetylene was dimeri2ed to vinylacetylene with a cuprous chloride catalyst and the vinyl-acetylene reacted with hydrogen chloride to give 2-chloro-1,3-butadiene. This process was replaced in 1970 with a butadiene-based process in which butadiene is chlorinated and dehydrochlorinated to yield the desired product (see Chlorocarbonsandchlorohydrocarbons). 

Acrylonitrile—Butadiene—Styrene. ABS is an important commercial polymer, with numerous apphcations. In the late 1950s, ABS was produced by emulsion grafting of styrene-acrylonitrile copolymers onto polybutadiene latex particles. This method continues to be the basis for a considerable volume of ABS manufacture. More recently, ABS has also been produced by continuous mass and mass-suspension processes (237). The various products may be mechanically blended for optimizing properties and cost. Brittle SAN, toughened by SAN-grafted ethylene—propylene and acrylate mbbets, is used in outdoor apphcations. Flame retardancy of ABS is improved by chlorinated PE and other flame-retarding additives (237). 

Fig. 10. Preparation and morphology of toughened PVC (a) secondary PVC grain (50—250 flm) (b) modified PVC with coherent primary grain (ca 1 -lm) (220). CPE = chlorinated polyethylene EVA = ethylene—vinyl acetate copolymers ABS = acrylonitrile—butadiene—styrene MBS = methyl...

Natural mbber comes generally from southeast Asia. Synthetic mbbers are produced from monomers obtained from the cracking and refining of petroleum (qv). The most common monomers are styrene, butadiene, isobutylene, isoprene, ethylene, propylene, and acrylonitrile. There are numerous others for specialty elastomers which include acryUcs, chlorosulfonated polyethylene, chlorinated polyethylene, epichlorohydrin, ethylene—acryUc, ethylene octene mbber, ethylene—propylene mbber, fluoroelastomers, polynorbomene, polysulftdes, siUcone, thermoplastic elastomers, urethanes, and ethylene—vinyl acetate. 

By-products from EDC pyrolysis typically include acetjiene, ethylene, methyl chloride, ethyl chloride, 1,3-butadiene, vinylacetylene, benzene, chloroprene, vinyUdene chloride, 1,1-dichloroethane, chloroform, carbon tetrachloride, 1,1,1-trichloroethane [71-55-6] and other chlorinated hydrocarbons (78). Most of these impurities remain with the unconverted EDC, and are subsequendy removed in EDC purification as light and heavy ends. The lightest compounds, ethylene and acetylene, are taken off with the HCl and end up in the oxychlorination reactor feed. The acetylene can be selectively hydrogenated to ethylene. The compounds that have boiling points near that of vinyl chloride, ie, methyl chloride and 1,3-butadiene, will codistiU with the vinyl chloride product. Chlorine or carbon tetrachloride addition to the pyrolysis reactor feed has been used to suppress methyl chloride formation, whereas 1,3-butadiene, which interferes with PVC polymerization, can be removed by treatment with chlorine or HCl, or by selective hydrogenation. 

In the petroleum (qv) industry hydrogen bromide can serve as an alkylation catalyst. It is claimed as a catalyst in the controlled oxidation of aHphatic and ahcycHc hydrocarbons to ketones, acids, and peroxides (7,8). AppHcations of HBr with NH Br (9) or with H2S and HCl (10) as promoters for the dehydrogenation of butene to butadiene have been described, and either HBr or HCl can be used in the vapor-phase ortho methylation of phenol with methanol over alumina (11). Various patents dealing with catalytic activity of HCl also cover the use of HBr. An important reaction of HBr in organic syntheses is the replacement of aHphatic chlorine by bromine in the presence of an aluminum catalyst (12). Small quantities of hydrobromic acid are employed in analytical chemistry. 

Chloroprene (qv), 2-chloro-1,3-butadiene, [126-99-8] is produced commercially from butadiene in a three-step process. Butadiene is first chlorinated at 300°C to a 60 40 mixture of the 1,2- and 1,4-dichlorobutene isomers. This mixture is isomeri2ed to the 3,4-dichloro-l-butene with the aid of a Cu—CU2CI2 catalyst followed by dehydrochlorination with base such as NaOH (54). 

Dicbloro-l,3-butadiene [1653-19-6] is a favored comonomer to decrease the regularity and crystallization of chloroprene polymers. It is one of the few monomers that will copolymerize with chloroprene at a satisfactory rate without severe inhibition. It is prepared from by-products or related intermediates. It is also prepared in several steps from chloroprene beginning with hydrochlorination. Subsequent chlorination to 2,3,4-trichloto-1-butene, followed by dehydrochlorination leads to the desired monomer in good yield if polymerization is prevented. 

The vinylacetylene [689-97-4] route to chloroprene has been described elsewhere (14). It is no longer practical because of costs except where inexpensive by-product acetylene and existing equipment ate available (see Acetylene-DERIVED chemicals). In the production of chloroprene from butadiene [106-99-0], there are three essential steps, chlorination, isomerization, and caustic dehydrochlorination of the 3,3-dichloro-l-butene, as shown by the following equations Chlorination... 

Liquid-phase chlorination of butadiene in hydroxyhc or other polar solvents can be quite compHcated in kinetics and lead to extensive formation of by-products that involve the solvent. In nonpolar solvents the reaction can be either free radical or polar in nature (20). The free-radical process results in excessive losses to tetrachlorobutanes if near-stoichiometric ratios of reactants ate used or polymer if excess of butadiene is used. The "ionic" reaction, if a small amount of air is used to inhibit free radicals, can be quite slow in a highly purified system but is accelerated by small traces of practically any polar impurity. Pyridine, dipolar aptotic solvents, and oil-soluble ammonium chlorides have been used to improve the reaction (21). As a commercial process, the use of a solvent requites that the products must be separated from solvent as well as from each other and the excess butadiene which is used, but high yields of the desired products can be obtained without formation of polymer at higher butadiene to chlorine ratio. 

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