Terephthalic acid synthesis

Osada M, Savage PE. (2009) Terephthalic acid synthesis at higher concentrations in high temperature liquid water. 2. Eliminating undesired by-products. AICHEJ, 55(6) 1530-1537. 

Dunn, J. and Savage, P. (2003). Economic and environmental assessment of high-temperature water as a medium for terephthalic acid synthesis. Green Chem., 5, pp. 649-655. 

Although poly(trimethylene terephthalate) has been known for many years it was only introduced by Shell in the late 1990s as a consequence of a breakthrough in the synthesis of the monomer 1,3-propane diol which enabled the polymer to be produced at costs suitable for commercialisation. The polymer itself is prepared by melt condensation of the diol with terephthalic acid. 

You will recognize the side-chain oxidation of p-xylene to terephthalic acid as a reaction type discussed previously (Section 11.13). Examples of other reactions encountered earlier that can be applied to the synthesis of carboxylic acids are collected in Table 19.4. 

Synthesis of polyanhydrides from the aromatic dicarboxylic acids (isophthalic and terephthalic acids) by melt polycondensation was first... 

Although the synthesis is completed in very few steps, oxidation of 1,4-xylene to the corresponding terephthalic acid does not afford a uniform product. Partial dihalogenation gives rise to side products. The condensation reaction requires two equivalents of arylamine per halogen atom. One equivalent is needed to neutralize the generated hydrohalogen acid, which is subsequently separated as aryl-amine-hydrohalide and recycled as hydrohalide and arylamine. 

Oxidation is the first step for producing molecules with a very wide range of functional groups because oxygenated compounds are precursors to many other products. For example, alcohols may be converted to ethers, esters, alkenes, and, via nucleophilic substitution, to halogenated or amine products. Ketones and aldehydes may be used in condensation reactions to form new C-C double bonds, epoxides may be ring opened to form diols and polymers, and, finally, carboxylic acids are routinely converted to esters, amides, acid chlorides and acid anhydrides. Oxidation reactions are some of the largest scale industrial processes in synthetic chemistry, and the production of alcohols, ketones, aldehydes, epoxides and carboxylic acids is performed on a mammoth scale. For example, world production of ethylene oxide is estimated at 58 million tonnes, 2 million tonnes of adipic acid are made, mainly as a precursor in the synthesis of nylons, and 8 million tonnes of terephthalic acid are produced each year, mainly for the production of polyethylene terephthalate) [1]. 

BHET formation is conducted at temperatures of 200 to 250 °C to achieve reasonable reaction rates. The activation energies of the two reactions are of the order of 25 000-30 000 cal/mol [4, 5], The BHET formation is usually conducted under pressure to keep the ethylene glycol in the liquid state. Terephthalic acid is slurried with ethylene glycol for the esterification reaction. Dimethyl terephthalate is dissolved in ethylene glycol and BHET for a liquid-phase transesterification reaction. The synthesis of BHET is driven to this material by the removal of water or methanol. The reactions are reversible at reasonable rates if the concentrations of water or methanol reactants are held high. 

Table 9.2 summarizes the uses of acetic acid. Vinyl acetate is another top 50 chemical. Acetic anhydride is used to make cellulose acetate and at times has been in the top 50 chemicals itself. Cellulose acetate is a polymer used mainly as a fiber in clothing and cigarette filters. Ethyl acetate is a common organic solvent. Acetic acid is used as a solvent in the manufacture of terephthalic acid (TA) and dimethyl terephthalate (DMT), which are monomers for the synthesis of poly(ethylene terephthalate), the polyester of the textile industry. A minor household use of acetic acid is as a 3-5% aqueous solution, which is called vinegar. 

Condensation polymerization and stepwise addition polymerization are, for example, applied for the preparation of block polyesters. The synthesis concepts are different from those of chain polymerization in that at least one monomer is an oligomer with one or two functional end groups, for example polytetrahy-drofurane with a molecular weight of several hundred and OH-end groups (see Example 3-23). If this oligomer partially replaces butandiol in the condensation polymerization with terephthalic acid (compare examples 4-1 and 4-2), a po-ly(ether ester) is obtained with hard ester segments and soft ether segments and with the properties of a thermoplastic elastomer. 

Investigation of template poly condensation kinetics has only been studied within a very narrow scope. Polymerization of dimethyl tartrate with hexamethylene diamine was found to be enhanced by using as a template poly(vinyl pyrrolidone), poly(2-vinyl pyridine), or polysaccharides and poly(vinyl alcohol), poly(4-vinyl pyridine). In this case, the template can be treated as a catalyst. No information exists on the influence of the template on the order of reaction. The increase in molecular weight of the polymerization product by the template can be induced by a shift of equilibrium or by an increase in the reaction rate. A similar increase in the reaction rate was observed when poly(4-vi-nyl pyridine) was used in the synthesis of poly(terephtalamides) activated by triphenyl phosphite.The authors suggested that a high molecular weight template was involved in the increase of the local concentration of the substrate (terephthalic acid) by adsorption and activation via N-phosphonium salt of poly(4- vinyl pyridine). 

The major uses of mixed xylene are in aviation gasoline and protective coatings, and as a solvent for alkyd resins, lacquers, enamels and rubber cements. wetrr-Xylene is used as a solvent, as an intermediate for dyes and organic synthesis, especially isophthalic acid and insecticides, and in aviation fuel or// o-xylene is used in manufacture of phthalic anhydride, vitamin and pharmaceutical synthesis, dyes, insecticides, motor fuels para-xylene is used in synthesis of terephthalic acid for polyester resins and fibres, vitamin and pharmaceutical syntheses, and insecticides (Lewis, 1993). 

Shimada and coworkers recently reported the synthesis of the poly[2]catenand 56, which is structurally related to the poly[2]catenand 51b (Scheme 20) [60]. Similarly to what has been observed for the co-polycondensation of the dihy-droxy[2]catenand 50b with the terephthalic acid derivative 47, the reaction of the diamino[2]catenand 53 with adipoyl dichloride affords mainly the Pretzel -shaped compound 54 [3, 41, 60]. The poly[2]catenand 56 has been obtained via the polycondensation of the diamino[2]catenate 54 with adipoyl dichloride, yielding the poly[2]catenate 55. Subsequently, the demetalation of the latter affords the linear poly[2]catenand 56 with M = 8.1xl05, using polystyrene standards, which corre-... 

Homolytic liquid-phase processes are generally well suited to the synthesis of carboxylic acids, viz. acetic, benzoic or terephthalic acids which are resistant to further oxidation. These processes operate at high temperature (150-250°C) and generally use soluble cobalt or manganese salts as the main catalyst components. High conversions and selectivities are usually obtained with methyl-substituted aromatic hydrocarbons such as toluene and xylenes.95,96 The cobalt-catalyzed oxidation of cyclohexane by air to a cyclohexanol-cyclohexanone mixture is a very important industrial process since these products are intermediates in the manufacture of adipic acid (for nylon 6,6) and caprolactam (nylon 6). However, the conversion is limited to ca. 10% in order to prevent consecutive oxidations, with roughly 70% selectivity.97... 

A process for the commercial synthesis of >-phenylene diisocyanate using terephthalamide [3010-82-0] as a precursor and involving N-halo intermediates has been studied extensively (21). The synthesis of 1,4-diisocyanatocydohexane from terephthalic acid [100-21-0] also involves a nitrene intermediate (22). 

Furan-2,5-dicarboxylic add also has tremendous industrial potential, because it could replace oil-derived diadds such as adipic or terephthalic acid as monomers for polyesters and polyamides [98, 99]. This diadd can be synthesized by Pt-catalyzed oxidation with 02 of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural the latter is obtained by acid-catalyzed dehydration of D-frudose or frudosans (inulin) the latter, however, are too expensive as starting materials, and yields from glucose-based waste raw materials are no higher than 40%. Therefore, the potential attractive option of furan-2,5-dicarboxylic acid will develop only after an effident generation of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural from forestry waste materials has been developed. The same compound is also the starting material for the synthesis of other interesting chemicals obtained by oxidative processes, such as 5-hydroxymethylfuroic add, 5-formylfuran-2-carboxylic add and the 1,6-dialdehyde. 

An analogous synthesis was reported by Sung et al. [61]. Benzoic add or bi-functional isophthalic or terephthalic acids were employed as the acid components in the Ugi condensation. The final products 93 possessed alternating benzene/ imidazole systems and were potentially interesting for their optoelectronic properties (Scheme 2.33). 

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