Hexamethylenediamine from butadiene

The manufacture of hexamethylenediamine [124-09-4] a key comonomer in nylon-6,6 production proceeds by a two-step HCN addition reaction to produce adiponittile [111-69-3] NCCH2CH2CH2CH2CN. The adiponittile is then hydrogenated to produce the desired diamine. The other half of nylon-6,6, adipic acid (qv), can also be produced from butadiene by means of either of two similar routes involving the addition of CO. Reaction between the diamine and adipic acid [124-04-5] produces nylon-6,6. 

Figure 10.3 Manufacture of adiponitrile and hexamethylenediamine from 1,3-butadiene.

Hexamethylenediamine (HMDA, boiling point 204°C, melting point 41°C) is used in the synthesis of nylon, and it is manufactured from butadiene. 

Hexamethylenediamine [HMDA, EIjEt CEyg-NEy is the principal industrial chemical made from butadiene. EIMDA is polymerized with adipic acid to make a kind of nylon. 

Another raw material for the production of hexamethylenediamine is butadiene derived from thermal and catalytic cracking of petroleum. Propose reagents and experimental conditions for the conversion of butadiene to hexamethylenediamine. 

In a typical process adiponitrile is formed by the interaction of adipic acid and gaseous ammonia in the presence of a boron phosphate catalyst at 305-350°C. The adiponitrile is purified and then subjected to continuous hydrogenation at 130°C and 4000 Ibf/in (28 MPa) pressure in the presence of excess ammonia and a cobalt catalyst. By-products such as hexamethyleneimine are formed but the quantity produced is minimized by the use of excess ammonia. Pure hexamethylenediamine (boiling point 90-92°C at 14mmHg pressure, melting point 39°C) is obtained by distillation, Hexamethylenediamine is also prepared commercially from butadience. The butadiene feedstock is of relatively low cost but it does use substantial quantities of hydrogen cyanide. The process developed by Du Pont may be given schematically as ... 

Hexamethylenediamine is now made by three different routes the original from adipic acid, the electrodimerization of acrylonitrile, and the addition of hydrogen cyanide to butadiene. Thus, the starting material can be cyclohexane, propylene, or butadiene. Currently, the cyclohexane-based route from adipic acid is the most costly and this process is being phased out. The butadiene route is patented by DuPont and requires hydrogen cyanide facilities. Recent new hexamethylenediamine plants, outside DuPont, are based on acrylonitrile from propylene, a readily available commodity. 

Hexamethylenediamine (HMDA), a monomer for the synthesis of polyamide-6,6, is produced by catalytic hydrogenation of adiponitrile. Three processes, each based on a different reactant, produce the latter coimnercially. The original Du Pont process, still used in a few plants, starts with adipic acid made from cyclohexane adipic acid then reacts with ammonia to yield the dinitrile. This process has been replaced in many plants by the catalytic hydrocyanation of butadiene. A third route to adiponitrile is the electrolytic dimerization of acrylonitrile, the latter produced by the ammoxidation of propene. 

Hexamethylenediamine is discussed in Chapter 10, Sections 1 and 8. It is produced from adiponitrile by hydrogenation. Adiponitrile comes from electrodimerization of acrylonitrile (32%) or from anti-Markovnikov addition of 2 moles of hydrogen cyanide to butadiene (68%). 

Adipodinitrile is an intermediate for hexamethylenediamine, the amine component of nylon 66. The electrochemical process is economically superior to the synthesis of adipodinitrile from cyclohexanone. Today, it essentially competes with the addition reaction of HCN to butadiene. The total capacity of the electrochemical ADN synthesis is currently about 250,000 tonnes/year. The process is industrially fully developed. Recent work 34 347) is aimed at reducing the oxygen evolution potential at the anode in order to save further energy. 

Currently the global production of hexamethylenediamine exceeds 1.2 Mt/a and production (e.g. ICI, BASF and Rhone-Poulenc in Europe) is based on the hydrogenation of adiponitrile, largely obtained by catalytic addition of HCN to butadiene. Celanese produced hexamethylenediamine by reaction of ammonia with hexane-1,6-diol, coming from the hydrogenation of adipic acid. However, production by this method was abandoned in 1984. 

Alternatively, adiponitrile may also be made from 1,3-butadiene via chlorination, folloAved by treatment with sodium cyanide. Catalytic reduction of adiponitrile with hydrogen then produces hexamethylenediamine (b.p. 205°C, Eq. 19.60). 

Polymer characterization is an important use of NIR spectrometry. Polymers can be made either from a single monomer, as is polyethylene, or from mixtures of monomers, as are styrene-butadiene rubber from styrene and butadiene and nylon 6-6, made from hexamethylenediamine and adipic acid. An important parameter of such copolymers is the relative amount of each present. This can be determined by NIR for polymers with the appropriate functional groups. Styrene content in a styrene-butadiene copolymer can be measured using the aromatic and aliphatic C—H bands. Nylon can be characterized by the NH band from the amine monomer and the C=0 band from the carboxylic acid monomer. Nitrogen-containing polymers such as nylons, polyurethanes, and urea formaldehyde resins can be measured by using the NH bands. Block copolymers, which are typically made of a soft block of polyester and a hard block containing aromatics, for example, polystyrene, have been analyzed by NIR. These analyses have utilized the... 

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