Mechanisms alkane oxygenation

According to the Brady-Pettit mechanism (34,35), shown in Scheme 3, chain growth occurs via insertion of CH2 between the surface site and the growing alkyl chain. Termination occurs through H addition or abstraction. According to this mechanism, alkanes and alkenes are predicted to be primary products, as is observed experimentally (91). Moreover, oxygen-containing compounds are predicted to be primary products formed via CO insertion, as discussed in Section 2.1. 

Simple alkanes can be converted to esters with dialkyloxrranes. Cyclic alkanes are oxidized to alcohols with dimethyl dioxirane. " Cyclohexane was converted to cyclohexyl trifluoroacetate with di(trifluoromethyl) dioxrrane and trifluoroacetic anhydride and also with RuCl3/MeC03H/CF3C02H. Dimethyl dioxrrane converts alkanes to alcohols in some cases. Adamantane is converted to adamantyl alcohol with DDQ (p. 1710) and triilic acid. The mechanism of oxygen insertion into alkanes has been examined. ... 

Kazakov DV, Barzilova AB, Kazakov V.P. A novel chemiluminescence from the reaction of dioxiranes with alkanes. Proposed mechanism of oxygen-transfer chemiluminescence. Chem Commun 2001 191-2. 

As the reaction temperature is increased, chemiluminescence is observed in the reactions of ozone with aromatic hydrocarbons and even alkanes. Variation of temperature has been used to control the selectivity in a gas chromatography (GC) detector [35], At room temperature, only olefins are detected at a temperature of 150°C, aromatic compounds begin to exhibit a chemiluminescent response and at 250°C alkanes respond, giving the detector a nearly universal response similar to a flame ionization detector (FID). The mechanisms of these reactions are complex and unknown. However, it seems likely that oxygen atoms produced in the thermal decomposition of ozone may play a significant role, as may surface reactions with 03 and O atoms. 

The oxidation of alkanes involves what is formally the insertion of an oxygen atom into a carbon-hydrogen bond (Fig. 4.41), although the reality of the mechanism is considerably more complex. 

Figure 7.19 The Groves oxygen rebound mechanism for alkane hydroxylation.

One of the most ubiquitous multiple-component contaminants that reaches the soil and deeper subsurface layers is crude oil and its refined products. In the subsurface, these contaminants are transformed differently by various mechanisms (Cozzarelli and Baber 2003). Crude oil contains a multitude of chemical components, each with different physical and chemical properties. As discussed in Chapter 4, the main groups of compounds in crude oils are saturated hydrocarbons (such as normal and branched alkanes and cycloalkanes without double bonds), aromatic hydrocarbons, resins, and asphaltenes, which are high-molecular-weight polycyclic compounds containing nitrogen, sulfur, and oxygen. 

The role of adsorbed oxygen species in the mechanism of alkane transformation, on the contrary, is more questionable. The effect induced by the substitution of O2 with N2O and IR indications are in agreement with this interpretation, but, on the other hand, activated electrophilic oxygen species form on reduced sites, preferably in tetrahedral coordination (79). The partial reduction of tetrahedral V =0 with formation of tetrahedral v after propane oxidative dehydrogenation can be observed using UV-Visible diffuse reflectance, ESR and V-NMR spectroscopies. It is thus not possible to assign unequivocally the active species in propane selective activation to a tetrahedral V =0 species or to or V -0-0 species formed in the... 

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