Cumene hydroperoxide intermediate

Co-production is still used in many relevant industrial processes. A typical example is the synthesis of phenol via the cumene process, which involves the formation of acetone as by-product. This example is discussed in a more detail later in Chapter 13. Direct oxidation of benzene to phenol using H2O2 is an attractive industrial alternative, but a main motivation is to avoid the formation of acetone, as there is actually excess acetone on the market. The process requires a single step versus three steps in the cumene process, one of which is related to the synthesis of a cumene hydroperoxide intermediate that shows significant problems of safety. There are thus various aspects that make more sustainable the direct synthesis of phenol over the cumene process, but atom economy (or related mass intensity indicators) is not the correct indicator to assess sustainability. 

One of the mdustnal processes for the preparation of phenol discussed in Section 24 6 includes an acid catalyzed rearrangement of cumene hydroperoxide as a key step This reaction proceeds by way of an intermediate hemiacetal... 

Sales demand for acetophenone is largely satisfied through distikative by-product recovery from residues produced in the Hock process for phenol (qv) manufacture. Acetophenone is produced in the Hock process by decomposition of cumene hydroperoxide. A more selective synthesis of acetophenone, by cleavage of cumene hydroperoxide over a cupric catalyst, has been patented (341). Acetophenone can also be produced by oxidizing the methylphenylcarbinol intermediate which is formed in styrene (qv) production processes using ethylbenzene oxidation, such as the ARCO and Halcon process and older technologies (342,343). 

The most widely used process for the production of phenol is the cumene process developed and Hcensed in the United States by AHiedSignal (formerly AHied Chemical Corp.). Benzene is alkylated with propylene to produce cumene (isopropylbenzene), which is oxidized by air over a catalyst to produce cumene hydroperoxide (CHP). With acid catalysis, CHP undergoes controUed decomposition to produce phenol and acetone a-methylstyrene and acetophenone are the by-products (12) (see Cumene Phenol). Other commercial processes for making phenol include the Raschig process, using chlorobenzene as the starting material, and the toluene process, via a benzoic acid intermediate. In the United States, 35-40% of the phenol produced is used for phenoHc resins. 

Organic peroxides such as cumene hydroperoxide and t-butyl hydroperoxide have extensively been used as experimental agents. They provoke lipid peroxidation in hepatocytes, probably by the generation of alkoxyl and peroxyl radical intermediates after reaction with cytochrome P450. Other cytotoxic mechanisms are probably involved including protein thiol and non-protein thiol oxidation and deranged calcium homeostasis (Jewell et al., 1986). In fact, the addition of cumene hydroperoxide to isolated bUe duct cells, devoid of cytochrome P450 activity, still results in cell death but lipid peroxidation is not detectable (Parola et al., 1990). 

In the preceding paragraph peroxides were described as key intermediates in autoxidation chemiluminescence. In most cases hydroperoxides were involved. The majority are well-defined compounds (e.g. cumene hydroperoxide), but autoxidation reactions are rather complex and peroxides are only one, though very important type of compound involved. 

The three-step cumene process, including the liquid-phase reactions and using sulfuric acid, is energy-consuming, environmentally unfavorable and disadvantageous for practical operation the process also produces as an unnecessary byproduct acetone, stoichiometrically. Furthermore, the intermediate, cumene hydroperoxide, is explosive and cannot be concentrated in the final step, resulting in a low one-path phenol yield, ( 5%, based on the amount of benzene initially used). Thus, direct phenol synthesis from benzene in one-step reaction with high... 

No readily acceptable mechanism has been advanced in reasonable detail to account for the decomposition of hydroperoxides by metal dialkyl dithiophosphates. Our limited results on the antioxidant efficiency of these compounds indicate that the metal plays an important role in the mechanism. So far it seems, at least for the catalytic decpmposition of cumene hydroperoxide on which practically all the work has been done, that the mechanism involves electrophilic attack and rearrangement as shown in Scheme 4. This requires, as commonly proposed, that the dithiophosphate is first converted to an active form. It does seem possible, on the other hand, that the original dithiophosphate could catalyze peroxide decomposition since nucleophilic attack could, in principle, lead to the same chain-carrying intermediate as in Scheme 4 thus,... 

The reduction of hydroperoxides with LiAlH, yields the corresponding alcohols probably via an LiAl(OR)4 intermediate. However this reaction with Bz202 resulted in an explosion (Ref 1) Cumene hydroperoxide (91-95% pure) will not detonate even when strongly boostered. However, it is easily ignitable can burn with sufficient violence to rupture steel distillation equipment (Ref 4)... 

Probtem 19.7 Give a mechanism for the acid-catalyzed rearrangement of cumene hydroperoxide involving an intermediate with an electron-deficient O (like R ). ... 

Cumene is an industrial intermediate in the manufacture of phenol and acetone via cumene hydroperoxide. It also has minor applications as a solvent. 

Rat liver microsomes also catalyzed benzo[a]pyrene metabolism in cumene hydroperoxide (CHP)-dependent reactions which ultimately produced 3-hydroxybenzo[a]pyrene and benzo[a]pyrene-quinones (Cavalieri et al. 1987). At low CHP concentrations, 3-hydroxybenzo[a]pyrene was the major metabolite. As CHP concentrations increased, levels of quinones increased and levels of 3- hydroxybenzo[a]pyrene decreased. This effect of varying CHP levels was reversed by preincubating with pyrene. Pyrene inhibited quinone production and increased 3-hydroxybenzo[a]pyrene production. Pretreatment with other PAHs like naphthalene, phenanthrene, and benz[a]anthracene nonspecifically inhibited the overall metabolism. The binding of benzo[a]pyrene to microsomal proteins correlated with quinone formation. This suggested that a reactive intermediate was a common precursor. The effects of pyrene on benzo[a]pyrene metabolism indicated that two distinct microsomal binding sites were responsible for the formation of 3-hydroxybenzo[a]pyrene and benzo[a]pyrene-quinone (Cavalieri et al. 1987). 

The n.m.r. line-broadening method was applied to the determination of the kinetic parameters of the exchange reactions of cumene hydroperoxide, cumyl alcohol, and cyclohexene in the co-ordination sphere of the complex H2 [Mo204(C204)2(H20)2] -4H20 (CH3)2C0. The results revealed that the first stage of both the decomposition of the hydroperoxide and the epoxidation reaction is the formation of an intermediate compound between a molybdenum(v) complex and the hydroperoxide. 

Investigation of the proposed intermediates and their reactions, as well as of the kinetics of individual reactions, showed that this scheme was entirely in agreement with the overall picture obtained from a study of cumene hydroperoxide decomposition catalysed by the sulphides. 

Thus, 1 seems to be a true catalyst rather then a new kind of free radical initiator. This behavior is in contrast to the behavior of related manganese complexes. For example, Mn(II) carboxylates are known to decompose CHP during autoxidation of cumene l dinuclear Mn(III) complexes decompose tetralin hydroperoxide during oxidation of tetralin (an inner-sphere Mn-alkyl hydroperoxide intermediate has been proposed) trinuclear, carboxylate and oxo-bridged complexes containing Mn(II) were found to decompose CHP during the catalyzed oxidation of cumene. 

Rearrangement of oxonium ions. In the acid-catalysed cleavage of cumene hydroperoxide (to phenol and acetone), an important step is aryl transfer from carbon to oxygen in the intermediate oxonium ion ... 

Conversion of cumene occurs via the cumene hydroperoxide protonation and subsequent transformation of the phenyl group produces a carbonium ion which is stabilized by the intermediate phenyl ether, and reacts further to phenol and acetone. In a secondary reaction, a-methylstyrene is formed by a radical-initiated mechanism (see Chapter 2.2.3.2). 

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