Cuprous carbide

COPPER ACETYLIDE (CUPROUS ACETYL IDE) (CUPROUS CARBIDE)... 

Thus, all copper salts give an explosive reaction with calcium carbide. This is due to the formation of explosive copper acetylide, which is formed from cupric or cuprous cation and the acetylene formed. 

The discovery of acetylene in 1836(or 1837) is attributed to Edmond Davy, but it was not until I860 that Berthelot definitely identified and named it(Ref 9, p 101 Ref 16, p 469). The compd obtained by Berthelot from cuprous acetylide was not pure because it contained some vinyl chloride. Acetylene was not produced commercially until Ca carbide was produced in the lab in 1899 by Morehead Willson, by heating a mixt of lime and coke in an electric furnace. They expected to prepare metallic calcium... 

Cuprous Acetylide. See under ACETYLIDES AND CARBIDES, Vol 1, p A72-R and in this Volume under List of Copper Compounds, p C 5 16-L... 

Cuprous oxide (Cu.O) Pumice Silicon carbide 350-400 Propene Acrolein CO,and H,0 (51)... 

Almost no papers were published on the kinetics of acrolein formation from propene. Those available report that cuprous oxide on silicon carbide or on pumice was used as catalyst. 

Conditions for the direct oxidation of propylene to acrolein include use of a catalyst of cuprous oxide deposited on granular silicon carbide, catalyst temperature of 375 C, feed stream composition by volume of 20 per cent propylene, 20 per cent air, and 60 per cent steam, and contact time of 1 sec. Recovery and primary purification of the acrolein from the reaction product are effected by quench scrubbing the reactor effluent with water and wth liquid propylene. The composition of the carbonylic compounds in the product is, approximately, acrolein, 90 per cent by weight acetaldehyde, 6 per cent propionaldehyde, 2 per cent and acetone, 2 per cent. At reaction temperatures of about 300 C and conversions of about 50 per cent, a selectivity to acrolein of about 40 per cent is reported for 10 per cent propylene-in-air mixtures. ... 

The reactions of acetylene which have been mentioned are analogous to those of the unsaturated hydrocarbons containing a double bond. Acetylene and other compounds which contain a carbon atom in combination with hydrogen and joined to a second atom in the manner which is represented by a triple bond, that is, those containing the group H —C =, show characteristic properties which serve to distinguish them from other substances. Such compounds are converted into metallic derivatives when they are treated with an ammoniacal solution of cuprous chloride or of silver chloride. If acetylene is passed into a solution of cuprous chloride in ammonia, a red precipitate is formed which has the composition C2CU2. This compound, which is a carbide of copper, is usually called copper acetylide. It explodes, when dry, if it is struck or is heated to 100°-120°. When treated with hydrochloric acid or with a solution of potassium cyanide, acetylene is formed. 

The composition of the product prepared in a neutral envirraunent of cupric chloride or sulfate is close to theory (the ratio of C/Cu = 1.98). If the reactant is a cupric tartrate in an acidic enviromnent then cuprous acetylide is the final product due to the reducing properties of tartaric acid [50]. Cupric acetylide is also produced directly by the reactirm of calcium carbide in aqueous solutions with cupric salts. Calcium hydroxide and cupric hydroxide, which co-precipitate together with cupric acetylide, can be dissolved by adding dilute acetic acid [48]. 

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