Synthesis of Vinyl Acetate Ethenyl Ethanoate

It is convenient to consider the synthesis of vinyl acetate at this point, because it involves the aerobic oxidation of ethene to the unstable intermediate ethenol (H2C=CH(OH)), followed by its immediate esterification with acetic (ethanoic) acid, 

fixed-bed performance after 40 h on stream test conditions, 438 K, 115psig with feed of ethene, acetic acid, oxygen and nitrogen. 

The commercial fixed-bed catalyst loses activity with use, limiting its useful life to a few years, but the selectivity ( 94%) remains high. The metal particle size was shown in one study113 to have increased from 

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