Temperatures, industrial after intermediate

Secondary alcohols (C1Q—C14) for surfactant intermediates are produced by hydrolysis of secondary alkyl borate or boroxine esters formed when paraffin hydrocarbons are air-oxidized in the presence of boric acid [10043-35-3] (19,20). Union Carbide Corporation operated a plant in the United States from 1964 until 1977. A plant built by Nippon Shokubai (Japan Catalytic Chemical) in 1972 in Kawasaki, Japan was expanded to 30,000 t/yr capacity in 1980 (20). The process has been operated industrially in the USSR since 1959 (21). Also, predominantly primary alcohols are produced in large volumes in the USSR by reduction of fatty acids, or their methyl esters, from permanganate-catalyzed air oxidation of paraffin hydrocarbons (22). The paraffin oxidation is carried out in the temperature range 150—180°C at a paraffin conversion generally below 20% to a mixture of trialkyl borate, (RO)3B, and trialkyl boroxine, (ROBO)3. Unconverted paraffin is separated from the product mixture by flash distillation. After hydrolysis of residual borate esters, the boric acid is recovered for recycle and the alcohols are purified by washing and distillation (19,20). 

A great deal of work has been done on the effect of aqueous alkali on cellulose, from the viewpoint of the pulping industry (e.g., 16-28.48-59). The minor organic volatile products observed here at similar temperature to those used in Kraft pulping (150-180°C) eventually lead to colored product formation, which is of concern to the paper industry. The formation of acetone from cellulose has long been known. Generally, most interest has been shown in the nature of the residual cellulose after alkali treatment, not in the nature of the volatiles. From the viewpoint of determining the chemistry of oil formation from cellulose, the intermediate volatile products are all-important and the residual cellulose is of little interest. 

In the examples provided in this section, combinatorial methods were used to improve the properties of an industrial aromatic polymer, such as melt-polymerized bisphenol-A polycarbonate. The reactions were performed in 96-well microtiter glass plates that served as 96-microreactor arrays in a sequence of steps of increasing temperature with a maximum temperature of 280°C. An example of one of the 96-microreactor arrays after melt-polymerization is shown in Figure 5.3A. For melt-polymerization of bisphenol-A polycarbonate, the starting reaction components included diphenyl carbonate and bisphenol-A monomers and a catalyst (e.g., NaOH). The materials codes used in the examples are presented in Table 5.2. Intermediate species include polycarbonate oligomers and phenol. The bisphenol-A polycarbonate polymer often contains a branched side product that produces a detectable fluorescence signal and other species that can include nonbranched end-groups and cyclics. We used fluorescence spectroscopy for nondestructive chemical analysis of melt-polymerized bisphenol-A polycarbonate. The key attractive... 

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