Hydration, of olefins

The hydration of oleflns is important for the direct synthesis of alcohols from olefins in the pietroleum industry and has been extensively studied over various solid acid catalysts. In the case of ethanol synthesis from ethylene and water, silicotungstic acids, silicophosphoric acids, solid phosphoric acids, metal sulfates, and metal oxides have been studied as solid acid catalysts. In its industrial process, a solid phosphoric acid catalyst (Shell patent) is widely used throughout the world. The nature of the active (acidic) sites which exhibit high catalytic activity and selectivity is discussed below together with the hydration mechanism involving the catalytic behavior. 

Correlation Between Acidic Property and Catalytic Activity 

When metal sulfates were used as catalysts for hydration of ethylene at 463 K, only ethanol was formed, no by-products such as ethylene polymer, diethyl ether or acetaldehyde being detected. The acid amounts of nickel sulfates preheated at various temperatures and their catalytic activities for hydration of ethylene are shown in Fig. 4.8. The activities correlate well with the acid amounts at acid strength Ho 3, 

Reaction temp, 463 K, Mole ratio of H2O/C2H4 0.04, Total pressure 620 mmHg 

It is known that both Bronsted and Lewis acid sites are formed on the surface of heat-treated nickel sulfate and that the maximum of Brensted acidity appears when heat-treated at 523 K and the maximum of Lewis acidity at 673 K, while the sum of both acidities shows the maximum at 623 Since the maximum activity of nickel sulfate for ethanol formation was observed when heat-treated at 623 K and the activity curve correlated well with the Bronsted plus Lewis acidity curve (Fig.4.9), the ethanol formation is considered to be catalyzed by both Bransted and Lewis acids. It 

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Dehydration. Dehydration of amyl alcohols is important for the preparation of specialty olefins and where it may produce unwanted by-products under acidic reaction conditions. Olefin formation is especially facile with secondary or tertiary amyl alcohols under acidic conditions. The reverse reaction, hydration of olefins, is commonly used for the preparation of alcohols. 

Many catalysts for the hydration of olefins in general, and of ethylene in particular, are described in the patent Hterature. Practically all of them are acidic. There has been a patent Hterature review through 1937 of the types of catalysts used (47,48) and a general review of olefin hydration (88). 

With phosphoric acid-based catalysts, in which the active component is Hquid acid absorbed in the pores of the support, the reaction probably follows the path (119) for the hydration of olefins in aqueous solution ... 

Examples are given of common operations such as absorption of ammonia to make fertihzers and of carbon dioxide to make soda ash. Also of recoveiy of phosphine from offgases of phosphorous plants recoveiy of HE oxidation, halogenation, and hydrogenation of various organics hydration of olefins to alcohols oxo reaction for higher aldehydes and alcohols ozonolysis of oleic acid absorption of carbon monoxide to make sodium formate alkylation of acetic acid with isobutylene to make teti-h ty acetate, absorption of olefins to make various products HCl and HBr plus higher alcohols to make alkyl hahdes and so on. 

Vn. Oxymercuration A Convenient Route to Markovnikov Hydration of Olefins... 

The acid catalyzed hydration of olefins is frequently attended by decomposition or rearrangement of the acid-sensitive substrate. A simple and mild procedure for the Markovnikov hydration of double bonds has recently been devised by Brown and co-workers 13). This reaction, which appears to be remarkably free of rearrangements, initially involves the addition of mercuric acetate to the double bond to give the 1,2-... 

Wacker olefin oxidation, which is depicted in its simplest form in Eq. (6.33), contains palladium( 11)-catalyzed hydration of olefin in its important step (Eq. 6.34) and is discussed extensively [62]. In this review article we introduce two asymmetric Wacker type reactions. 

The reversibly formed re-complexes precursor to the hydration of olefins have the proton imbedded in the re-electron cloud of the double bond somewhere between the two carbon atoms. They are therefore... 

Alcohols, alkyl bromides and chlorides from, 54, 66 by cis-hydration of olefins,... 

Hydration of olefins, alkynes and nitriles calls explicitely for the use of aqueous solvents. Indeed, one of the earliest investigations originates from 1969, when hydration of fluoroalkenes were studied with Ru(II)-chloride catalysts (Scheme 9.6). The reaction has no synthetic value but the studies helped to clarify the mechanism of the interaction of olefins with Ru(II)... 

Hydration of Olefins. The earliest and still the largest production of chemicals from petroleum hydrocarbons was based on the hydration of olefins to produce alcohols by the employment of sulfuric acid. The addition of olefins to sulfuric acid to form alkyl sulfates and dialkyl sulfates takes place on simple contact of the hydrocarbons with the acid. To keep down polymerization and isomerization of the hydrocarbons, the temperature is kept relatively low, usually below 40° C. and commonly considerably lower than that (18). The strength of the sulfuric acid used depends on the olefin to be absorbed. Absorption of ethylene requires an acid concentration higher than 90%, whereas propylene and butylenes are readily absorbed in 85% acid or less. The alkyl and dialkyl sulfate solutions, on dilution and heating, are hydrolyzed to the alcohols plus small amounts of by-product ethers. After distilling off the organic products, the dilute sulfuric acid is reconcentrated and re-used. 

A major limitation on the production of alcohols by olefin hydration is the fact that the products consist almost solely of secondary or tertiary alcohols (excepting, of course, ethyl alcohol). The normal or primary alcohols are made by other means (but also from petroleum hydrocarbons). It appears more difficult to prepare C5 and higher alcohols by the hydration of olefins since they are produced commercially by other means. One of the problems encountered (81) is excessive polymerization of the higher olefins when contacted with aqueous sulfuric acid. 

The oxo reaction (31) is carried out in the liquid phase at high pressure using a cobalt catalyst. A mixture of aldehyde isomers is always produced, each isomer being one carbon number higher than the starting olefin. As a group the oxygenated products of the hydrocarbon synthesis (Fischer-Tropsch) process and the oxo process are primary compounds and thus (except, of course, the methyl and ethyl derivatives) differ fundamentally from the products based on alcohols made by the hydration of olefins, which are always secondary or tertiary in structure. 

Hydration means, in general, addition of the elements of water to a substance. Most of these reactions are non-catalytic or homogeneously catalysed processes. In this section, only hydration of olefins to alcohols, of acetylene to acetaldehyde, and of alkene oxides to glycols will be treated, since they are typical reactions where the application of solid catalysts has become important. 

Originally, the hydration of olefins to alcohols was carried out with dilute aqueous sulphuric acid as the catalyst. Recently, the direct vapour phase hydration of olefins with solid catalysts has become the predominant method of operation. From the thermodynamic point of view, the formation of alcohols by the exothermic reaction (A) is favoured by low temperatures though even at room temperature the equilibrium is still in favour of dehydration. To induce a rapid reaction, the solid catalysts require an elevated temperatue, which shifts the equilibrium so far in favour of the olefin that the maximum attainable conversion may be very low. High pressures are therefore necessary to bring the conversion to an economic level (Fig. 11). To select an optimum combination of reaction conditions with respect to both rate limitation and equilibrium limitation,... 

The catalytic hydration of olefins can also be performed in a three-phase system solid catalyst, liquid water (with the alcohol formed dissolved in it) and gaseous olefin [258,279,280]. The olefin conversion is raised, in comparison with the vapour phase processes, by the increase in solubility of the product alcohol in the excess of water [258]. For these systems with liquid and vapour phases simultaneously present, the equilibrium composition of both phases can be estimated together with vapour-liquid equilibrium data [281]. For the three-phase systems, ion exchangers, especially, have proved to be very efficient catalysts [260,280]. With higher olefins (2-methylpropene), the reaction was also performed in a two-phase liquid system with an ion exchanger as catalyst [282]. It is evident that the kinetic characteristics differ according to the arrangement (phase conditions), i.e. whether the vapour system, liquid vapour system or two-phase liquid system is used. However, most kinetic and mechanistic studies of olefin hydration were carried out in vapour phase systems. 

Some other catalytic events prompted by rhodium or ruthenium porphyrins are the following 1. Activation and catalytic aldol condensation of ketones with Rh(OEP)C104 under neutral and mild conditions [372], 2. Anti-Markovnikov hydration of olefins with NaBH4 and 02 in THF, a catalytic modification of hydroboration-oxidation of olefins, as exemplified by the one-pot conversion of 1-methylcyclohexene to ( )-2-methylcycIohexanol with 100% regioselectivity and up to 90% stereoselectivity [373]. 3. Photocatalytic liquid-phase dehydrogenation of cyclohexanol in the presence of RhCl(TPP) [374]. 4. Catalysis of the water gas shift reaction in water at 100 °C and 1 atm CO by [RuCO(TPPS4)H20]4 [375]. 5. Oxygen reduction catalyzed by carbon supported iridium chelates [376]. - Certainly these notes can only be hints of what can be expected from new noble metal porphyrin catalysts in the near future. 

Price and Hammett s rule has found confirmation in the reaction of benzaldehyde with acetone and ethyl methyl ketone (Gettler and Hammett, 1943), in the acid-catalyzed hydration of olefins (Taft, 1956a), in the hydrolysis of esters catalyzed by ion-exchange resins (Samelson and Hammett, 1956), in acid-catalyzed deoxymercuration (Kreevoy et al., 1962), and in the esterification of carboxylic acids in methanol (Smith, 1939). Taft (1956b) has noted that the rule seems to require the following modifications. The entropy-bearing substituent... 

Manassen, J., Klein, F.S. Reactions of n-Butene and Butan-2-ol in Dilute Acid. The Elucidation of the Mechanism and the Intermediate in Elimination from Secondary Alcohols and in the Hydration of Olefins. J. Chem. Soc. 1960, 4203. 

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