Hydrocarbon chain-propagation reactions

The introduction of hydroxylamine into oxidizing hydrocarbon adds the new cycle of chain propagation reactions to the traditional R —> R02 —> R cycle. This scheme is similar to that of hydrocarbon oxidation with the addition of another hydroperoxide (see earlier). 

The important role of reaction enthalpy in the free radical abstraction reactions is well known and was discussed in Chapters 6 and 7. The BDE of the O—H bonds of alkyl hydroperoxides depends slightly on the structure of the alkyl radical D0 H = 365.5 kJ mol 1 for all primary and secondary hydroperoxides and P0—h = 358.6 kJ mol 1 for tertiary hydroperoxides (see Chapter 2). Therefore, the enthalpy of the reaction RjOO + RjH depends on the BDE of the attacked C—H bond of the hydrocarbon. But a different situation is encountered during oxidation and co-oxidation of aldehydes. As proved earlier, the BDE of peracids formed from acylperoxyl radicals is much higher than the BDE of the O—H bond of alkyl hydroperoxides and depends on the structure of the acyl substituent. Therefore, the BDEs of both the attacked C—H and O—H of the formed peracid are important factors that influence the chain propagation reaction. This is demonstrated in Table 8.9 where the calculated values of the enthalpy of the reaction RjCV + RjH for different RjHs including aldehydes and different peroxyl radicals are presented. One can see that the value A//( R02 + RH) is much lower in the reactions of the same compound with acylperoxyl radicals. 

The kinetic method of HO and RO radical freezing out and an analysis of their ESR spectra in relation to the oxidation of lower hydrocarbons are presented in detail in a monograph [22], It was unambiguously shown for the first time (via direct measurements) that the areas of negative temperature coefficient occurrence in low- and high-temperature oxidation depend on the ratio l HO J / RO J at high-temperature oxidation, this ratio sharply increases and H02 radicals become the active sites in chain propagation reactions. 

Whereas the chain propagation reactions are in radical balance, and the bond fission reaction creates two free radicals from the parent molecule, radical recombination and disproportionation consume two free radicals in the formation of molecular species. The kinetics of this step are essentially collision controlled, as logioA = 8.5-10 is quite reasonable. For reasonably sized hydrocarbon free radicals, E is essentially zero. 

An initiator system has been found independently in the laboratories of Esso and Sun Oil (3, 4). This system promotes transmetalation and chain propagation reactions at comparable rates so that a telomerization reaction of ethylene with aromatic hydrocarbons is realized under relatively mild operating conditions. 

The effectiveness of a modifier depends on its chemical structure, concentration, temperature, and pressure. A concentration-independent measure for its effectiveness is the chain transfer constant, defined as the ratio of kinetic coefficients for the transfer reaction to this substance and radical chain propagation reaction. Usually the effectiveness of chain transfer agents is increased with rising temperature and reduced pressure. The chain transfer constant of modifiers falls from aldehydes, which are more effective than ketones or esters, to hydrocarbons. Unsaturated hydrocarbons typically have higher transfer constants than saturated hydrocarbons and a strong effect on polymer density must be considered because of the ability to copolymerize that give a higher frequency of short-chain branches in the polymer. 

Flame propagation shows moderate sensitivity to the rate coefficient of this exothermic (A//298 = 63.2 kJ) chain-propagation reaction (Fig. 4). Together with OH + OH H O + O and OH + CH2O H2O + CHO (see below), this step is the main source of water in typical hydrocarbon-air flames at atmospheric pressure. Together with its reverse reaction and CO + OH CO2 + H it takes part in establishing the water-gas equilibrium (see below). 

Possible pathways of the degradation reaction may be visualized for a linear hydrocarbon chain in which the reaction centre ( ) is formed by the effect of initiation (heat, light, oxygen, shear stress, etc.), see Scheme la. A complementary reaction site is denoted as (-). For example, when ( ) is a free radical site, (-) is also a free radical site, if ( ) is a cation, then (-) is an anion, etc. The three stages of the reaction depicted in Scheme la, are initiation, propagation and termination, respectively. The dissociation energies of bonds situated in a /(-position to the reaction site ( ) are considerably lower than those... 

Peroxyl radicals can undergo various reactions, e.g., hydrogen abstraction, isomerization, decay, and addition to a double bond. Chain propagation in oxidized aliphatic, alkyl-aromatic, alicyclic hydrocarbons, and olefins with weak C—H bonds near the double bond proceeds according to the following reaction as a limiting step of the chain process [2 15] ... 

The peroxyl radical of a hydrocarbon can attack the C—H bond of another hydrocarbon. In addition to this bimolecular abstraction, the reaction of intramolecular hydrogen atom abstraction is known when peroxyl radical attacks its own C—H bond to form as final product dihydroperoxide. This effect of intramolecular chain propagation was first observed by Rust in the 2,4-dimethylpentane oxidation experiments [130] ... 

The traditional chain oxidation with chain propagation via the reaction RO/ + RH occurs at a sufficiently elevated temperature when chain propagation is more rapid than chain termination (see earlier discussion). The main molecular product of this reaction is hydroperoxide. When tertiary peroxyl radicals react more rapidly in the reaction R02 + R02 with formation of alkoxyl radicals than in the reaction R02 + RH, the mechanism of oxidation changes. Alkoxyl radicals are very reactive. They react with parent hydrocarbon and alcohols formed as primary products of hydrocarbon chain oxidation. As we see, alkoxyl radicals decompose with production of carbonyl compounds. The activation energy of their decomposition is higher than the reaction with hydrocarbons (see earlier discussion). As a result, heating of the system leads to conditions when the alkoxyl radical decomposition occurs more rapidly than the abstraction of the hydrogen atom from the hydrocarbon. The new chain mechanism of the hydrocarbon oxidation occurs under such conditions, with chain... 

The chain mechanism is complicated when two hydrocarbons are oxidized simultaneously. Russell and Williamson [1,2] performed the first experiments on the co-oxidation of hydrocarbons with ethers. The theory of these reactions is close to that for the reaction of free radical copolymerization [3] and was developed by several researchers [4-9], When one hydrocarbon R H is oxidized in the liquid phase at a sufficiently high dioxygen pressure chain propagation is limited only by one reaction, namely, R OO + R H. For the co-oxidation of two hydrocarbons R1 and R2H, four propagation reactions are important, viz,... 

In the initial period the oxidation of hydrocarbon RH proceeds as a chain reaction with one limiting step of chain propagation, namely reaction R02 + RH. The rate of the reaction is determined only by the activity and the concentration of peroxyl radicals. As soon as the oxidation products (hydroperoxide, alcohol, ketone, etc.) accumulate, the peroxyl radicals react with these products. As a result, the peroxyl radicals formed from RH (R02 ) are replaced by other free radicals. Thus, the oxidation of hydrocarbon in the presence of produced and oxidized intermediates is performed in co-oxidation with complex composition of free radicals propagating the chain [4], A few examples are given below. 

The kinetic analysis proves that formation of very active radical from intermediate product can increase the reaction rate not more than twice. However, the formation of inactive radical can principally stop the chain reaction [77], Besides the rate, the change of composition of chain propagating radicals can influence the rate of formation and decay of intermediates in the oxidized hydrocarbon. In its turn, the concentrations of intermediates (alcohols, ketones, aldehydes, etc.) influence autoinitiation and the rate of autoxidation of the hydrocarbon (see Chapter 4). 

When the hydrocarbon concentration is high enough for the reaction of the sulfonyl-peroxyl radical with hydrocarbon not to limit the chain propagation, the following equation describes the dependence of the initial rate v of initiated (Vj) chain sulfoxidation of alkane [25] ... 

This problem was first approached in the work of Denisov [59] dealing with the autoxidation of hydrocarbon in the presence of an inhibitor, which was able to break chains in reactions with peroxyl radicals, while the radicals produced failed to contribute to chain propagation (see Chapter 5). The kinetics of inhibitor consumption and hydroperoxide accumulation were elucidated by a computer-aided numerical solution of a set of differential equations. In full agreement with the experiment, the induction period increased with the efficiency of the inhibitor characterized by the ratio of rate constants [59], An initiated inhibited reaction (vi = vi0 = const.) transforms into the autoinitiated chain reaction (vi = vio + k3[ROOH] > vi0) if the following condition is satisfied. 

It should be taken into account that the reaction of chain propagation occurs in polymer more slowly than in the liquid phase also. The ratios of rate constants kjlkq, which are so important for inhibition (see Chapter 14), are close for polymers and model hydrocarbon compounds (see Table 19.7). The effectiveness of the inhibiting action of phenols depends not only on their reactivity, but also on the reactivity of the formed phenoxyls (see Chapter 15). Reaction 8 (In + R02 ) leads to chain termination and occurs rapidly in hydrocarbons (see Chapter 15). Since this reaction is limited by the diffusion of reactants it occurs in polymers much more slowly (see earlier). Quinolide peroxides produced in this reaction in the case of sterically hindered phenoxyls are unstable at elevated temperatures. The rate constants of their decay are described in Chapter 15. The reaction of sterically hindered phenoxyls with hydroperoxide groups occurs more slowly in the polymer matrix in comparison with hydrocarbon (see Table 19.8). 

The seemingly plausible Scheme shown in 4 is inconsistent with the results of the 13C0 labeling study as are most schemes which do not involve CO insertion for the chain propagation. We believe that ethylene arises from the same sequence of steps as the other hydrocarbon products. The role of the second metal center in the reduction cannot be described. We believe that the iron-iron bond is cleaved early in the reaction since the reduction in the presence of PBu3 produced the unsubstituted species, LiCpFe(C0)2. While there is too little information currently available to assess the importance of Scheme 3, our results on reduction in this iron system are not consistent with the normal CO insertion mechanism or with carbene oligomerization. We suggest Scheme 3 until further research can be accomplished. 

Isobutene is one of the very small number of aliphatic hydrocarbons which form linear high polymers by cationic catalysis (see Section 5). The reason for this is that only in these few among the lower aliphatic olefins is there found the right balance of those factors which determine the path of a cationic polymerisation. For the formation of linear high polymers it is necessary that the propagation reaction should be much faster than all alternative reactions of the growing end of the chain and for any appreciable numbers of chains to be formed at all, the initiation must be fast. ... 

Reaction (3.1) is the initiation step, where M is a reactant molecule forming a radical R. Reaction (3.2) is a particular representation of a collection of propagation steps and chain branching to the extent that the overall chain branching ratio can be represented as a. M is another reactant molecule and a has any value greater than 1. Reaction (3.3) is a particular chain propagating step forming a product R It will be shown in later discussions of the hydrocarbon-air... 

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