Carbenium ions transfer

An extremely wide variety of catalysts, Lewis acids, Brmnsted acids, metal oxides, molecular sieves, dispersed sodium and potassium, and light, are effective (Table 5). Generally, acidic catalysts are required for skeletal isomerization and reaction is accompanied by polymerization, cracking, and hydrogen transfer, typical of carbenium ion iatermediates. Double-bond shift is accompHshed with high selectivity by the basic and metallic catalysts. 

The alkylate contains a mixture of isoparaffins, ranging from pentanes to decanes and higher, regardless of the olefins used. The dominant paraffin in the product is 2,2,4-trimethylpentane, also called isooctane. The reaction involves methide-ion transfer and carbenium-ion chain reaction, which is cataly2ed by strong acid. 

In a protic solvent—glycols are often used, with the base being the corresponding sodium glycolate—the reaction proceeds via formation of a carbenium ion 5. The diazo compound 3 can be converted into the diazonium ion 4 through transfer of a proton from the solvent (S-H). Subsequent loss of nitrogen then leads to the carbenium ion 5 ... 

The initial products of beta-scission are an olefin and a new carbenium ion (Equation 4-9). The newly-formed carbenium ion will then continue a series of chain reactions. Small ions (four-carbon or five-carbon) can transfer the positive charge to a big molecule, and the big molecule can crack. Cracking does not eliminate the positive charge it stays until two ions collide. The smaller ions are more stable and will not crack, They survive until they transfer their charge to a big molecule,... 

The key requirements for using Si-Cl functional initiators to produce polymers carrying Si Cl termini by carbenium ion polymerization are i) Si-Cl should be inert toward aUcylaluminum coinitiators, ii) Si-Cl should not react with propagating carbenium ions, in) chain transfer to monomer should be negligible so as to end up with one Si-Cl head-group per polymer chain. 

Effects of solvent polarity, counter-anion nucleophilidty, temperature, and monomer concentration on the carbenium ion polymerization chemistry have been extensively studied29,36 38,49. Based on previous knowledge26"29 Me3Al was chosen because with this coinitiator undesired chain transfer to monomer processes are absent. Preliminary experiments showed that Et3Al coinitiator did not yield PaMeSt, possibly because the nuc-leophilicity of the counter-anion Et3AlQe is too high and thus termination by hydrida-tion is faster than propagation36. ... 

As shown by the data in Fig. 31, the chain transfer constant of this initiator, Q = 1.0. In this context it is of interest to remember that the effect of initiator concentration on the molecular weight of HSi-PaMeSt was negligible, probably because of unfavorable thermodynamics (Sect. III.B.3.b.iv.). In contrast, with isobutylene chain transfer from the propagating carbenium ion to initiator is thermodynamically favorable (see Sect. IH.B.4.b.i.). Thus it is not surprising to find a large Q. The chain transfer mechanism has been illustrated in Scheme 5. 

Like carbenium ions, haionium ions may undergo propagation, transfer or termination. The significant decrease in monomer conversion in the presence of Mel and MeBr indicates that termination becomes important. Haionium ion formation also explains more pronounced poisoning with less efficient initiators, le., r-BuBr or H20 and at lower temperatures, le., —50° or below. It seems haionium ion formation is greatly favored by the decreased concentration of incipient carbenium ions, under these conditions. 

In line with Higashimura s view34 that carbenium ions are not strictly sp2 hybridized and that they retain some sp3 character, a more nucleophilic G would be expected to induce more sp3 character to the growing cation. Pronounced sp3 character of the carbenium ion would prevent orbital overlap, i.e., the formation of transition state leading to transfer, and thus to increase in molecular weight. 

The range of structural alternatives explored by valency-deficient carbon species and the subtle interplay of substituents is remarkable. Scheme 7.6 (ORTEP adapted from reference 31) illustrates an example of an X-ray structure clearly describing a localized [C-H C+] carbenium ion (A) where a symmetric bridging structure [C-H-C] + (B) could have been assumed. In this case it is proposed that a charge-transfer interaction between the resonance delocalized cation and the adjacent electron-rich carbazol moiety may be responsible for the stabilization of the localized form over the three-center, two-electron (3c-2e) bridging structure. 

Operando DRIFTS examination of the working zeolite catalysts shows adsorbed hexane but do not support the presence of bound alkoxide/olefin/carbenium ion species. Data substantiate that alkanes may be activated without full transfer of zeolite proton to the alkane, i.e., without generation of any kind of real carbocation as transition state or surface intermediate. 

Theoretically, even the direct alkylation of carbenium ions with isobutane is feasible. The reaction of isobutane with a r-butyl cation would lead to 2,2,3,3-tetramethylbutane as the primary product. With liquid superacids under controlled conditions, this has been observed (52), but under typical alkylation conditions 2,2,3,3-TMB is not produced. Kazansky et al. (26,27) proposed the direct alkylation of isopentane with propene in a two-step alkylation process. In this process, the alkene first forms the ester, which in the second step reacts with the isoalkane. Isopentane was found to add directly to the isopropyl ester via intermediate formation of (non-classical) carbonium ions. In this way, the carbenium ions are freed as the corresponding alkanes without hydride transfer (see Section II.D). This conclusion was inferred from the virtual absence of propane in the product mixture. Whether this reaction path is of significance in conventional alkylation processes is unclear at present. HF produces substantial amounts of propane in isobutane/propene alkylation. The lack of 2,2,4-TMP in the product, which is formed in almost all alkylates regardless of the feed (55), implies that the mechanism in the two-step alkylation process is different from that of conventional alkylation. 

Intermolecular hydride transfer (Reaction (6)), typically from isobutane to an alkyl-carbenium ion, transforms the ions into the corresponding alkanes and regenerates the t-butyl cation to continue the chain sequence in both liquid acids and zeolites. 

There are substantial differences between gas-phase and liquid-phase hydride transfer reactions. In the latter, the hydride transfer occurs with a low activation energy of 13-17 kJ/mol, and no carbonium ions have been detected as intermediates when secondary or tertiary carbenium ions were present (25). 

The reaction enthalpy of the hydride transfer step usually has a low absolute value. Whether hydride transfer is exo- or endothermic depends on the stability (evidenced by the heat of formation) of the involved carbenium ions. Branched carbenium ions are more stable than linear ones. Longer carbenium ions are more stable than shorter ones. Replacement of a long-chain carbenium ion by... 

With both liquid acid catalysts, but presumably to a higher degree with sulfuric acid, hydrides are not transferred exclusively to the carbenium ions from isobutane, but also from the conjunct polymers 44,46,71). Sulfuric acid containing 4-6 wt% of conjunct polymers produces a much higher quality alkylate than acids without ASOs (45). Cyclic and unsaturated compounds, which are both present in conjunct polymers, are known to be hydride donors (72). As was mentioned in Section II.B, these species can abstract a hydride from isobutane to form the -butyl cation, and they can give a hydride to a carbenium ion, producing the corresponding alkane, for example the TMPs, as shown in reactions (7) and (8). 

The isopentene produced will either be protonated or be added to another carbenium ion. With a butyl cation, this would lead to a nonyl cation. The resultant carbenium ion fragment can accept a hydride and form a product heptane, or it can possibly add a butene to form a Cn cation. With hydride transfer, another alkane with an odd number of carbon atoms is produced. Just this example is sufficient to show the huge variety of possible reactions. By means of gas chromatographic analysis, Albright and Wood (82) found about 100-200 peaks in the C9-C16 region, regardless of the alkene and acid employed. A similar number of products can be observed for solid acid-catalyzed alkylation. 

The data are summarized in Table II. They have been normalized to kx x s i for each zeolite catalyst. In general it is seen that the7transfer of an ethyl group (E,E E,X) occurs faster than that of a methyl group (X,E X,X). This is in agreement with the indicated mechanism for transalkylation (Figure 4) which involves a benzylic carbenium ion intermediate. In the case of methyl transfer, this is a primary cation,... 

Several reaction pathways for the cracking reaction are discussed in the literature. The commonly accepted mechanisms involve carbocations as intermediates. Reactions probably occur in catalytic cracking are visualized in Figure 4.14 [17,18], In a first step, carbocations are formed by interaction with acid sites in the zeolite. Carbenium ions may form by interaction of a paraffin molecule with a Lewis acid site abstracting a hydride ion from the alkane molecule (1), while carbo-nium ions form by direct protonation of paraffin molecules on Bronsted acid sites (2). A carbonium ion then either may eliminate a H2 molecule (3) or it cracks, releases a short-chain alkane and remains as a carbenium ion (4). The carbenium ion then gets either deprotonated and released as an olefin (5,9) or it isomerizes via a hydride (6) or methyl shift (7) to form more stable isomers. A hydride transfer from a second alkane molecule may then result in a branched alkane chain (8). The... 

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