Ethylene oxide, from catalytic oxidation

In the early versions, ethylene cyanohydrin was obtained from ethylene chlorohydrin and sodium cyanide. In later versions, ethylene oxide (from the dkect catalytic oxidation of ethylene) reacted with hydrogen cyanide in the presence of a base catalyst to give ethylene cyanohydrin. This was hydrolyzed and converted to acryhc acid and by-product ammonium acid sulfate by treatment with about 85% sulfuric acid. 

The product secondary alcohols from paraffin oxidation are converted to ethylene oxide adducts (alcohol ethoxylates) which are marketed by Japan Catalytic Chemical and BP Chemicals as SOFTANOL secondary alcohol ethoxylates. Union Carbide Chemical markets ethoxylated derivatives of the materials ia the United States under the TERGlTOL trademark (23). 

Ethylene can be oxidized to a variety of useful chemicals. The oxidation products depend primarily on the catalyst used and the reaction conditions. Ethylene oxide is the most important oxidation product of ethylene. Acetaldehyde and vinyl acetate are also oxidation products obtained from ethylene under special catalytic conditions. 

Figure 5.13. Effect of catalyst overpotential, AUWR, on catalytic rate and on catalyst work function changes, AO, during ethylene oxidation on Pt/YSZ at 400°C.34Reprinted with permission from Elsevier Science.

Figure 12.8. Transient effect of an applied potential, UAP, between the two terminal gold electrodes (30 V) on the catalytic rate of ethylene oxidation (expressed in mol O/s) for dotted (filled circles) and multi-striped (open circles) platinum configuration.10 Reprinted with permission from Elsevier Science.

Whereas ethylene oxide gives with 17 at ambient temperature a quantitative yield of l-trimethylsilyloxy-2-iodoethane [5, 31], substituted epoxides such as 846b react with 17 to give 848 as the main product [32]. Excess 17, however, leads to the bis-iodo compounds 849 and HMDSO 7 [4, 5]. In the presence of DBU the epoxides 850 are converted by 17, which is generated in situ from hexamethyl-disilane 857 and I2, into the allyl alcohols 851 [4, 32] (Scheme 6.14). Cycloctene epoxide 852 is opened by SiCl4 at -78 °C in the presence of catalytic amounts of the asymmetric catalyst 853 to give 61% of the chlorohydrin 854 in 98% ee [33]. 

The catalytic route, however, is simple and clean, although it does produce a small amount of CO2. Using silver, promoted by small amounts of chlorine, as the catalyst, ethylene oxide is formed directly from C2H4 and O2 at a selectivity of around 90%, with about 10% of the ethylene ending up as CO2. Nowadays all production facilities for ethylene oxide use catalysts. 

Ethylene is to be converted by catalytic air oxidation to ethylene oxide. The air and ethylene are mixed in the ratio 10 1 by volume. This mixture is combined with a recycle stream and the two streams are fed to the reactor. Of the ethylene entering the reactor, 40% is converted to ethylene oxide, 20% is converted to carbon dioxide and water, and the rest does not react. The exit gases from the reactor are treated to remove substantially all of the ethylene oxide and water, and the residue recycled. Purging of the recycle is required to avoid accumulation of carbon dioxide and hence maintain a constant feed to the reactor. Calculate the ratio of purge to recycle if not more than 8% of the ethylene fed is lost in the purge. What will be the composition of the corresponding reactor feed gas ... 

Freeder, B. G. et al., J. Loss Prev. Process Ind., 1988, 1, 164-168 Accidental contamination of a 90 kg cylinder of ethylene oxide with a little sodium hydroxide solution led to explosive failure of the cylinder over 8 hours later [1], Based on later studies of the kinetics and heat release of the poly condensation reaction, it was estimated that after 8 hours and 1 min, some 12.7% of the oxide had condensed with an increase in temperature from 20 to 100°C. At this point the heat release rate was calculated to be 2.1 MJ/min, and 100 s later the temperature and heat release rate would be 160° and 1.67 MJ/s respectively, with 28% condensation. Complete reaction would have been attained some 16 s later at a temperature of 700°C [2], Precautions designed to prevent explosive polymerisation of ethylene oxide are discussed, including rigid exclusion of acids covalent halides, such as aluminium chloride, iron(III) chloride, tin(IV) chloride basic materials like alkali hydroxides, ammonia, amines, metallic potassium and catalytically active solids such as aluminium oxide, iron oxide, or rust [1] A comparative study of the runaway exothermic polymerisation of ethylene oxide and of propylene oxide by 10 wt% of solutions of sodium hydroxide of various concentrations has been done using ARC. Results below show onset temperatures/corrected adiabatic exotherm/maximum pressure attained and heat of polymerisation for the least (0.125 M) and most (1 M) concentrated alkali solutions used as catalysts. 

Five-coordinate aluminum alkyls are useful as oxirane-polymerization catalysts. Controlled polymerization of lactones102 and lactides103 has been achieved with Schiff base aluminum alkyl complexes. Ketiminate-based five-coordinate aluminum alkyl (OCMeCHCMeNAr)AlEt2 were found to be active catalyst for the ring-opening polymerization of -caprolactone.88 Salen aluminum alkyls have also been found to be active catalysts for the preparation of ethylene carbonate from sc C02 and ethylene oxide.1 4 Their catalytic activity is markedly enhanced in the presence of a Lewis base or a quaternary salt. 

In most cases the catalytically active metal complex moiety is attached to a polymer carrying tertiary phosphine units. Such phosphinated polymers can be prepared from well-known water soluble polymers such as poly(ethyleneimine), poly(acryhc acid) [90,91] or polyethers [92] (see also Chapter 2). The solubility of these catalysts is often pH-dependent [90,91,93] so they can be separated from the reaction mixture by proper manipulation of the pH. Some polymers, such as the poly(ethylene oxide)-poly(propylene oxide)-poly(ethylene oxide) block copolymers, have inverse temperature dependent solubihty in water and retain this property after functionahzation with PPh2 and subsequent complexation with rhodium(I). The effect of temperature was demonstrated in the hydrogenation of aqueous allyl alcohol, which proceeded rapidly at 0 °C but stopped completely at 40 °C at which temperature the catalyst precipitated hydrogenation resumed by coohng the solution to 0 °C [92]. Such smart catalysts may have special value in regulating the rate of strongly exothermic catalytic reactions. 

A C1215 essentially linear primary alcohol ethoxylate having an average of 9 ethylene oxide (EO) units per mole of alcohol (C12.15LPAE-9). The alcohol was prepared from Ci i.u olefins using catalytic addition of CO and H2. Approximately 80% of this alcohol contained linear alkyl chains. The 20% remaining contained 2-alkyl branches, mostly methyl. 

The search for a new epoxidation method that would be appropriate for organic synthesis should also, preferably, opt for a catalytic process. Industry has shown the way. It resorts to catalysis for epoxidations of olefins into key intermediates, such as ethylene oxide and propylene oxide. The former is prepared from ethylene and dioxygen with silver oxide supported on alumina as the catalyst, at 270°C (15-16). The latter is prepared from propylene and an alkyl hydroperoxide, with homogeneous catalysis by molybdenum comp e ts( 17) or better (with respect both to conversion and to selectivity) with an heterogeneous Ti(IV) catalyst (18), Mixtures of ethylene and propylene can be epoxidized too (19) by ten-butylhydroperoxide (20) (hereafter referred to as TBHP). 

Acrylonitrile was first produced in Germany and the United States on an industrial scale in the early 1940s. These processes were based on the catalytic dehydration of ethylene cyanohydrin. Ethylene cyanohydrin was produced from ethylene oxide and aqueous hydrocyanic acid at 60°C in the presence of a basic catalyst. The intermediate was then dehydrated in the liquid phase at 200°C in the presence of magnesium carbonate and alkaline or alkaline earth salts of fonnic acid. A second commercial route to acrylonitrile was the catalytic addition of hydrogen cyanide to acetylene. The last commercial plants using these process technologies were shut down in 1970 (Langvardt, 1985 Brazdil, 1991). 

Diethyizinc is not an active catalyst for polymerization of ethylene oxide and propylene oxide, but gives a high molecular weight polymer from styrene oxide (78) and a copolymer from styrene oxide and propylene oxide (79). This behavior is interpreted by assuming that styrene oxide easily reacts with diethyizinc to give a catalytically active species Zn[OCH2CH PhEt]2 (79,80). 

In a separate investigation MargeHs and Roginekii1107 carried nut catalytic oxidation of ethylene at 350° over vanadium pentoxidc. reportedly similar to metallic silver in catalytic properties. TVv asoertainod that carbon dioxide was formed faster from, ethylene oxide, or from acetaldehyde under comparable conditions, than from ethylene itself. Further, they noted the formation of carbon monoxide, and determined that its rate of formation was considerably greater than that of carbon dioxide, increasing still more in the presence of adtk-d ethylene oxide. The addition of ethylene oxide also appeared to depro both ethylene oxide and acetaldehyde formation. They concluded that reactions leading to carbon dioxide and water did not proceed by wav of ethylene oxide, but by way of some other intermediates, and tlmt-this process could occur either on the catalyst surface or in the gas phase. 

There have been used essentially only three catalysts foi the hydrogenation of ethylene oxides nickel, palladium on charcoal, and platinum black. Solvent normally employed include ethanol wait nickel, and ethanol, ethyl acetate, or acetic acid with the other. Reduction over platinum or palladium catalysts is usually conducted at room temperature and low pressure, whereas nickel catalysth Imvi-been employed in autoclaves at temperatures ranging from 3fT to nearly 200° and high pressures. For excellent general discussions ol catalytic redaction any of several outstanding sources14" 11-ltni m.i> be consulted. 

The first single-site metal catalyst which was shown to homogeneously catalyze the coupling of epoxides and C02 was (tpp)AlCl (tpp = tetraphenylporphyrin) in the presence of a quaternary organic salt or triphenylphosphine [20]. Although this catalytic system was extremely slow at ambient temperature, copolymers from ethylene oxide, PO, and CHO and C02 were obtained that possessed very narrow molecular weight distributions (polydispersity = 1.06-1.14). The low reactivity of... 

Melphalan and the racemic analog have been prepared by two general routes (Scheme I). In Approach (A) the amino acid function is protected, and the nitrogen mustard moiety is prepared by conventional methods from aromatic nitro-derivatives. Thus, the ethyl ester of N-phthaloyl-phenylalanine was nitrated and reduced catalytically to amine I. Compound I was reacted with ethylene oxide to form the corresponding bis(2-hydroxyethyl)amino derivative II, which was then treated with phosphorus oxychloride or thionyl chloride. The blocking groups were removed by acidic hydrolysis. Melphalan was precipitated by addition of sodium acetate and was recrystallized from methanol. No racemization was detected [10,28—30]. The hydrochloride was obtained in pure form from the final hydrolysis mixture by partial neutralization to pH 0.5 [31]. Variants of this approach, used for the preparation of the racemic compound, followed the same route via the a-acylamino-a-p-aminobenzyl malonic ester III [10,28—30,32,33] or the hydantoin IV [12]. 

Spiredine has been isolated recently from S. japonica by Gorbunov and co-workers (141). On the basis of spectral data and chemical correlation with spiradine A, structure 168 was assigned to this new alkaloid. Catalytic hydrogenation of spiredine in a mixture of ethanol and acetic acid afforded tetrahydrospiredine (169). The latter was identical with the compound obtained by the addition of ethylene oxide to dihydrospiradine A (170). 

---