Dehydrations of Alcohols Investigated in Micro Reactors

3 Dehydrations of Alcohols Investigated in Micro Reactors Organic synthesis 80 [OS 80] Dehydration of 1-hexanol to hexene 

The dehydration of 1-hexanol to hexene was conducted over heterogeneous sulfated zirconium oxide catalyst [19, 138]. The zirconia was treated with sulfuric acid and is known as super acid catalyst, having well documented performance for many reactions [19]. The reaction conditions are notably milder as for other acid catalysts, such as silica-alumina. 

After activation by heating, the catalyst was dusted over the surface of a thin polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) layer, being coated on the PDMS top plate of the micro reactor [19]. Such a modified plate was baked for 1 h at 100 °C. A high surface area and firm immobilization of the catalyst resulted. Then, the micro reactor was assembled from the top and another bottom plate, having at one micro-channel wall the catalyst layer. Stable operation with the PDMS micro reactor up to 175 °C could be confirmed. 

Conversion/selectivity/yield - benchmarking to large-scale reactors 

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