2-Methyl-2-butanol, dehydration

Esters and acids from simple carbonylation reactions Alcohols, ethers and esters with higher homologous alkyl groups. Hydrocarbons from hydrogenolysis of the alcohol and its homologs. Ethers from dehydration of the substrate. Esters of the reagent alcohol. s)oiefins from dehydration of the alcohols. Isomeric alcohols. Isomer products (linear/branched 50/50 - 60/40). Only 2-methyl butanol Dimers and trimers of i-butene. 

Except for the biochemical example just cited the stractures of all of the alcohols m Section 5 9 (including those m Problem 5 13) were such that each one could give only a single alkene by p elimination What about ehmmahon m alcohols such as 2 methyl 2 butanol m which dehydration can occur in two different directions to give alkenes that are conshtutional iso mers Here a double bond can be generated between C 1 and C 2 or between C 2 and C 3 Both processes occur but not nearly to the same extent Under the usual reachon con dihons 2 methyl 2 butene is the major product and 2 methyl 1 butene the minor one... 

There is a strong similarity between the mechanism shown m Eigure 5 12 and the one shown for alcohol dehydration m Eigure 5 6 The mam difference between the dehy dration of 2 methyl 2 butanol and the dehydrohalogenation of 2 bromo 2 methylbutane IS the source of the carbocation When the alcohol is the substrate it is the correspond mg alkyloxonmm ion that dissociates to form the carbocation The alkyl halide ionizes directly to the carbocation... 

Isobutyl alcohol [78-83-1] forms a substantial fraction of the butanols produced by higher alcohol synthesis over modified copper—zinc oxide-based catalysts. Conceivably, separation of this alcohol and dehydration affords an alternative route to isobutjiene [115-11 -7] for methyl /-butyl ether [1624-04-4] (MTBE) production. MTBE is a rapidly growing constituent of reformulated gasoline, but its growth is likely to be limited by available suppHes of isobutylene. Thus higher alcohol synthesis provides a process capable of supplying all of the raw materials required for manufacture of this key fuel oxygenate (24) (see Ethers). 

Methyl vinyl ketone can be produced by the reactions of acetone and formaldehyde to form 4-hydroxy-2-butanone, followed by dehydration to the product (267,268). Methyl vinyl ketone can also be produced by the Mannich reaction of acetone, formaldehyde, and diethylamine (269). Preparation via the oxidation of saturated alcohols or ketones such as 2-butanol and methyl ethyl ketone is also known (270), and older patents report the synthesis of methyl vinyl ketone by the hydration of vinylacetylene (271,272). 

An example of a specialty olefin from an amyl alcohol is Phillips Petroleum s new process for 3-methyl-1-butene (used in the synthesis of pyrethroids) from the catalytic dehydration of 3-methyl-1-butanol (21,22). The process affords 94% product selectivity and 94% alcohol conversion at 310°C and 276 kPa (40 psig). 

Dehydration of 1-pentanol or 2-pentanol to the corresponding olefins has been accompHshed, in high purity and yields, by vapor-phase heterogeneous catalyzed processes using a variety of catalysts including neutral gamma —Al Og catalyst doped with an alkah metal (23), zinc aluminate (24,25), hthiated clays (26), Ca2(P0 2 montmorillonite clays (28). Dehydration of 2-methyl-1-butanol occurs over zinc aluminate catalyst at... 

The hydroperoxide process involves oxidation of propjiene (qv) to propylene oxide by an organic hydroperoxide. An alcohol is produced as a coproduct. Two different hydroperoxides are used commercially that result in / fZ-butanol or 1-phenylethanol as the coproduct. The / fZ-butanol (TBA) has been used as a gasoline additive, dehydrated to isobutjiene, and used as feedstock to produce methyl tert-huty ether (MTBE), a gasoline additive. The 1-phenyl ethanol is dehydrated to styrene. ARCO Chemical has plants producing the TBA coproduct in the United States, Erance, and the Netherlands. Texaco has a TBA coproduct plant in the United States. Styrene coproduct plants are operated by ARCO Chemical in the United States and Japan, Shell in the Netherlands, Repsol in Spain, and Yukong in South Korea. 

The / f/-butanol (TBA) coproduct is purified for further use as a gasoline additive. Upon reaction with methanol, methyl tert-huty ether (MTBE) is produced. Alternatively the TBA is dehydrated to isobutylene which is further hydrogenated to isobutane for recycle ia the propylene oxide process. 

Acid-catalyzed dehydrations usually follow Zaitsev s rule (Section 11.7) and yield the more stable alkene as the major product. Thus, 2-methyl-2-butanol gives primarily 2-methyl-2-butene (trisubstituted double bond) rather than 2-methyl-l-butene (disubstitulecl double bond). 

Similar interpretation can be used in explaining the results of Skell and Maxwell (86) who dehydrated 2-methyl-1-butanol in the presence of bromoform and aqueous potassium hydroxide in solution. 

The products from the dehydration of 3,3-dimethyl-2-butanol can be explained by anchimeric assistance of the methyl group and the removal of the proton from the y-carbon atom ... 

There has been an enormous technological interest in tertfa/j-butanol (tBA) dehydration during the past thirty years, first as a primary route to methyl te/f-butyl ether (MTBE) (1) and more recently for the production of isooctane and polyisobutylene (2). A number of commercializable processes have been developed for isobutylene manufacture (eq 1) in both the USA and Japan (3,4). These processes typically involve either vapor-phase tBA dehydration over a silica-alumina catalyst at 260-370°C, or liquid-phase processing utilizing either homogenous (sulfonic acid), or solid acid catalysis (e.g. acidic cationic resins). More recently, tBA dehydration has been examined using silica-supported heteropoly acids (5), montmorillonite clays (6), titanosilicates (7), as well as the use of compressed liquid water (8). 

Esterification of linalool requires special reaction conditions since it tends to undergo dehydration and cyclization because it is an unsaturated tertiary alcohol. These reactions can be avoided as follows esterification with ketene in the presence of an acidic esterification catalyst below 30 °C results in formation of linalyl acetate without any byproducts [71]. Esterification can be achieved in good yield, with boiling acetic anhydride, whereby the acetic acid is distilled off as it is formed a large excess of acetic anhydride must be maintained by continuous addition of anhydride to the still vessel [34]. Highly pure linalyl acetate can be obtained by transesterification of tert-butyl acetate with linalool in the presence of sodium methylate and by continuous removal of the tert-butanol formed in the process [72]. 

However, dehydration of 2-methyl-1-butanol with H2SO4 forms 2-methyl-2-butene by carbocation rearrangement. 

In the dehydration of 3,3-dimethyl-2-butanol, a secondary carbocation is formed initially, which rearranges to a tertiary carbocation when a neighboring methyl group with its bonding electron pair migrates to the positive carbon. The charge is thereby transferred to the tertiary carbon ... 

Write a stepwise mechanism for the formation of 2-methyl-2-butene from the dehydration of 2-methyl-2-butanol is sulfuric acid. 

When an alcohol has two or three different P carbons, dehydration is regioselective and follows the Zaitsev rule. The more substituted alkene is the major product when a mixture of constitutional isomers is possible. For example, elimination of H and OH from 2-methyl-2-butanol yields two constitutional isomers the trisubstituted alkene A as major product and the disubstituted alkene B as minor product. 

The dehydration of 3,3-dimethyl-2-butanol illustrates the rearrangement of a 2° to a 3° carbocation by a 1,2-methyl shift, as shown in Mechanism 9.3. The carbocation rearrangement occurs in Step [3] of the four-step mechanism. 

---