Chlorination of toluene

The chlorination of toluene by substituting the methyl hydrogens is a free radical reaction. A mixture of three chlorides (benzyl chloride, ben-zal chloride and benzotrichloride) results. 

The ratio of the chloride mixture mainly derives from the toluene/chlo-rine ratio and the contact time. Benzyl chloride is produced hy passing dry chlorine into hoiling toluene (110°C) until reaching a density of 1.283. At this density, the concentration of henzyl chloride reaches the maximum. Light can initiate the reaction. 

Benzyl chloride can produce henzyl alcohol hy hydrolysis  

Benzal chloride is hydrolyzed to henzaldehyde, and henzotrichloride is hydrolyzed to henzoic acid. 

Chlorinated toluenes are not large-volume chemicals, hut they are precursors for many synthetic chemicals and pharmaceuticals. 

Free radical initiators play an important role in many chemical reactions (see also Chapter 17, Problem 5). For example, combustion of gasoline is assisted by compounds such as tetraethyl lead, heating of which results in bond breaking and generation of ethyl radical. 

In the presence of chlorine gas and a free-radical initiator, three of toluene s hydrogens are sequentially replaced by chlorine atoms. 

The first step in the overall process is believed to involve abstraction of hydrogen by chlorine atom, followed by reaction of the ensuing radical with Ch. 

Draw resonance structures for the possible radicals resulting from hydrogen atom abstraction from toluene. Which would you anticipate to be the most stable Why Compare energies for the different radicals (radical A, radical B,. ..). Is the lowest-energy radical that which you anticipated Are any of the alternatives significantly better than any of the others Explain your reasoning. 

What are the three products resulting from free-radical chlorination of toluene Why are only three hydrogens replaced  

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It was first described in 1608 when it was sublimed out of gum benzoin. It also occurs in many other natural resins. Benzoic acid is manufactured by the air oxidation of toluene in the liquid phase at 150°C and 4-6 atm. in the presence of a cobalt catalyst by the partial decarboxylation of phthalic anhydride in either the liquid or vapour phase in the presence of water by the hydrolysis of benzotrichloride (from the chlorination of toluene) in the presence of zinc chloride at 100°C. 

It is prepared by the direct chlorination of toluene in the presence of PClj. It is purified by fractionation from the unchanged toluene and the higher chlorinated products. It is used for benzylating amines and for preparing benzyl alcohol. 

Rapid side-chain chlorination of toluene proceeds in the dark with sulphuryl chloride in the presence of dibenzoyl peroxide (0-001-0 005 mol per mol of SOjCl,) as catalyst ... 

The comparative ease with which a benzylic hydrogen is abstracted leads to high selectivity m free radical halogenations of alkylbenzenes Thus chlorination of toluene... 

Benzyl Chloride. Benzyl chloride is manufactured by high temperature free-radical chlorination of toluene. The yield of benzyl chloride is maximized by use of excess toluene in the feed. More than half of the benzyl chloride produced is converted by butyl benzyl phthalate by reaction with monosodium butyl phthalate. The remainder is hydrolyzed to benzyl alcohol, which is converted to ahphatic esters for use in soaps, perfume, and davors. Benzyl salicylate is used as a sunscreen in lotions and creams. By-product benzal chloride can be converted to benzaldehyde, which is also produced directiy by oxidation of toluene and as a by-product during formation of benzoic acid. By-product ben zotrichl oride is not hydrolyzed to make benzoic acid but is allowed to react with benzoic acid to yield benzoyl chloride. 

The only industrially important processes for the manufacturing of synthetic benzaldehyde involve the hydrolysis of benzal chloride [98-87-3] and the air oxidation of toluene. The hydrolysis of benzal chloride, which is produced by the side-chain chlorination of toluene, is the older of the two processes. It is no longer utilized ia the United States. Other processes, including the oxidation of benzyl alcohol, the reduction of benzoyl chloride, and the reaction of carbon monoxide and benzene, have been utilized ia the past, but they no longer have any iadustrial appHcation. 

In the past benzal and benzyl chlorides were co-produced for the manufacture of benzaldehyde and benzyl alcohol, but today the vast majority of the benzaldehyde produced from benzal chloride is that which is made from recovered (by-product) material. For an historical article regarding the chlorination of toluene and the subsequent production of benzaldehyde, benzyl alcohol, and benzoic acid, see reference 4. 

Continuous chlorination of benzene at 30—50°C in the presence of a Lewis acid typically yields 85% monochlorobenzene. Temperatures in the range of 150—190°C favor production of the dichlorobenzene products. The para isomer is produced in a ratio of 2—3 to 1 of the ortho isomer. Other methods of aromatic ring chlorination include use of a mixture of hydrogen chloride and air in the presence of a copper—salt catalyst, or sulfuryl chloride in the presence of aluminum chloride at ambient temperatures. Free-radical chlorination of toluene successively yields benzyl chloride, benzal chloride, and benzotrichloride. Related chlorination agents include sulfuryl chloride, tert-huty hypochlorite, and /V-ch1orosuccinimide which yield benzyl chloride under the influence of light, heat, or radical initiators. 

Noncatalytic ring chlorination of toluene in a variety of solvents has been reported. Isomer distributions vary from approximately 60% ortho in hydroxyhc solvents, eg, acetic acid, to 60% para in solvents, eg, nitromethane, acetonittile, and ethylene dichloride (49,50). Reaction rates are relatively slow and these systems are particularly appropriate for kinetic studies. 

The rate of chlorination of toluene relative to that of ben2ene is about 345 (61). Usually, chlorination is carried out at temperatures below 70°C with the reaction proceeding at a profitable rate even at 0°C. The reaction is exothermic with ca 139 kj (33 kcal) of heat produced per mole of monochlorotoluene formed. Chlorine efficiency is high, and toluene conversion to monochlorotoluene can be carried to about 90% with the formation of only a few percent of dichlorotoluenes. In most catalyst systems, decreasing temperatures favor formation of increasing amounts of -chlorotoluene. Concentrations of requited catalysts are low, generally on the order of several tenths of a percent or less. 

The chlorination of toluene in the absence of catalysts that promote nuclear substitution occurs preferentially in the side chain. The reaction is promoted by free-radical initiators such as ultraviolet light or peroxides. Chlorination takes place in a stepwise manner and can be controlled to give good yields of the intermediate chlorination products. Small amounts of sequestering agents are sometimes used to remove trace amounts of heavy-metal ions that cause ring chlorination. 

Experimental data taken from the chlorination of toluene in a continuous stirred tank flow reactor at 111°C and irradiated with light of 500 nm wavelength yield a product distribution shown in Table 1 (1). 

Table 1. Distributions of Reactor Products from Batch Chlorination of Toluene...

Benzyl chloride is manufactured by the thermal or photochemical chlorination of toluene at 65—100°C (37). At lower temperatures the amount of ring-chlorinated by-products is increased. The chlorination is usually carried to no more than about 50% toluene conversion in order to minimize the amount of benzal chloride formed. Overall yield based on toluene is more than 90%. Various materials, including phosphoms pentachloride, have been reported to catalyze the side-chain chlorination. These compounds and others such as amides also reduce ring chlorination by complexing metallic impurities (38). 

Benzotrichloride is produced from total side-chain chlorination of toluene or of residual products from benzyl chloride production. In Western Europe, Bayer has the largest capacity (14,000 t/yr), and there are only two significant producers in the United States Occidental Chemical in Niagara EaUs, New York (20,000 t/yr), and Velsicol Chemical (11,000 t/yr). Total capacity in the western world is 68,000 t/yr and production of benzotrichloride in 1988 was estimated at 31,500 t. 

In some cases, the exponent is unity. In other cases, the simple power law is only an approximation for an actual sequence of reactions. For instance, the chlorination of toluene catalyzed by acids was found to have CL = 1.15 at 6°C (43°F) and 1.57 at 32°C (90°F), indicating some complex mechanism sensitive to temperature. A particular reaction may proceed in the absence of catalyst out at a reduced rate. Then the rate equation may be... 

Two complementai y reviews of this subject are by Shah et al. AIChE Journal, 28, 353-379 [1982]) and Deckwer (in de Lasa, ed.. Chemical Reactor Design andTechnology, Martinus Nijhoff, 1985, pp. 411-461). Useful comments are made by Doraiswamy and Sharma (Heterogeneous Reactions, Wiley, 1984). Charpentier (in Gianetto and Silveston, eds.. Multiphase Chemical Reactors, Hemisphere, 1986, pp. 104—151) emphasizes parameters of trickle bed and stirred tank reactors. Recommendations based on the literature are made for several design parameters namely, bubble diameter and velocity of rise, gas holdup, interfacial area, mass-transfer coefficients k a and /cl but not /cg, axial liquid-phase dispersion coefficient, and heat-transfer coefficient to the wall. The effect of vessel diameter on these parameters is insignificant when D > 0.15 m (0.49 ft), except for the dispersion coefficient. Application of these correlations is to (1) chlorination of toluene in the presence of FeCl,3 catalyst, (2) absorption of SO9 in aqueous potassium carbonate with arsenite catalyst, and (3) reaction of butene with sulfuric acid to butanol. 

In the absence of added mineral acid, the effective chlorinating species was concluded to be chlorine acetate. Like the catalysed chlorination, the rate of chlorination (of toluene) falls rapidly on changing the solvent from anhydrous to 98 % aqueous acetic acid, passes through a shallow minimum and thence to a maximum in 50 % aqueous acid this was thus attributed to a combination of the decrease in concentration of chlorine acetate as water is added and a solvent effect. By correcting for the change in concentration of chlorine acetate in the different media it was shown that the reaction rate increases as the water content of the media increases. 

Our own earlier work on the chlorination of toluene had been subject to similar constraints. In this case, chlorination with ferf-butyl hypochlorite had proved to be advantageous. In the presence of silica gel as catalyst the yield of chlorotoluenes was quantitative but the regioselectivity was more or less statistical (ref. 8). However, the use of proton-exchanged zeolite X allowed the production of chlorotoluenes with a para-selectivity of more than 90 % (Fig. 4) (ref. 9). No HCl is generated in this process since the by-product is tert-butanol, and there is no inhibition of the catalyst. Indeed, the catalyst can be reused if necessary. 

In our previous studies on chlorination of toluene we had found that solvent had an important effect on the selectivity. In particular, the use of diethyl ether as a cosolvent was advantageous for the production of a high proportion of the para-isomer (ref. 9). An experiment in which the amount of ether in a tetrachloromethane/diethyl ether solvent mixture was varied under otherwise identical reaction conditions (Ih reaction at 18°C with 1.04 molar equivalent of tert-butyl hypobromite) demonstrated that diethyl ether also had a marked influence on the selectivity of the bromination reaction (Fig. 6). There was also an effect on the yield of the reaction as performed under these standard conditions. As the... 

When an ortho-para directing group is on a ring, it is usually difficult to predict how much of the product will be the ortho isomer and how much the para isomer. Indeed, these proportions can depend greatly on the reaction conditions. For example, chlorination of toluene gives an ortho/para ratio anywhere from 62/38 to 34/66. Nevertheless, certain points can be made. On a purely statistical basis there would be 67% ortho and 33% para, since there are two ortho positions and only one para. However, the phenonium ion (9), which arises from protonation of benzene, has the... 

Ester (9) can easily be made from acid (H)- You might consider two approaches to this a one-carbon electrophile addition via chloromethylation (Table T 2.2) and oxidation or FGl (Table 2,3) back to p-chlorotoluene (12). The latter is easier on a large scale. The p-chlorotoluene (12) can be made either by direct chlorination of toluene or by the diazotisation route (p T 12) again from toluene. 

Finally it should be said that o-/p-ratios can be considerably influenced by the solvent in which the reaction is carried out. This can arise from changes in the relative stabilisation by solvent molecules of the transition states for o- and p-attack, but it may also involve the actual attacking electrophile being different in two different solvents the species actually added complexing with solvent molecules to form the electrophile proper—a different one in each case. This almost certainly occurs in halogenation without Lewis acid catalysts, e.g. in the chlorination of toluene at 25°, where f0./fp. ratios between 0-75 and 0-34 have been observed depending on the solvent. 

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