Toluene nitrotoluene

This is another case of an unexpected finding by GC/MS not likely to have been learned otherwise. A polyethylene (PE) laboratory waste container exploded. GC/MS was done on a fragment of recovered PE. Fig. 7 [2] shows toluene, nitrotoluene and dinitrotoluene. There was also an indication of trinitrotoluene TNT. The explosion oceurred because two people were putting in the waste container toluene in one case and nitric acid in the other. Over time the two compounds reacted and when the TNT accumulated to an explosive level, there was an explosion. Without GC/MS it might not have been known why the explosion occurred. This is not a case of plastics failure in the usual sense. Nevertheless, analysis of the plastic revealed the cause of an explosion in which plastic was involved. 

Oxidation of a side chain by alkaline permanganate. Aromatic hydrocarbons containing side chains may be oxidised to the corresponding acids the results are generally satisfactory for compounds with one side chain e.g., toluene or ethylbenzene -> benzoic acid nitrotoluene -> nitrobenzoic acid) or with two side chains e.g., o-xylene -> phthalic acid). 

Mixtures of HNO, H2SO4, and SO also result in high concentrations of NO/, and toluene can be readily nitrated at —40 to — 10°C as a result (6). At these low temperatures, the formation of the meta-isomer of mononitrotoluene (MNT) is greatiy reduced. Such a reduction is highly desired in the production both of dinitrotoluenes (DNTs) employed to produce intermediates for polyurethane production and of trinitrotoluene (TNT), which is a high explosive. > -MNT results in the production of undesired DNT and TNT isomers (see Nitrobenzene and nitrotoluenes). 

The mononitration of toluene results in the formation of a mixture of the ortho, meta, and para isomers of nitrotoluene. The presence of the methyl group on the aromatic ring facilitates the nitration, but it also increases the ease of oxidation. 

Analytical and Test Methods. o-Nitrotoluene can be analyzed for purity and isomer content by infrared spectroscopy with an accuracy of about 1%. -Nitrotoluene content can be estimated by the decomposition of the isomeric toluene diazonium chlorides because the ortho and meta isomers decompose more readily than the para isomer. A colorimetric method for determining the content of the various isomers is based on the color which forms when the mononitrotoluenes are dissolved in sulfuric acid (45). From the absorption of the sulfuric acid solution at 436 and 305 nm, the ortho and para isomer content can be deterrnined, and the meta isomer can be obtained by difference. However, this and other colorimetric methods are subject to possible interferences from other aromatic nitro compounds. A titrimetric method, based on the reduction of the nitro group with titanium(III) sulfate or chloride, can be used to determine mononitrotoluenes (32). Chromatographic methods, eg, gas chromatography or high pressure Hquid chromatography, are well suited for the deterrnination of mononitrotoluenes as well as its individual isomers. Freezing points are used commonly as indicators of purity of the various isomers. 

Dinitrotoluene can be prepared by the nitration of -nitrotoluene with yields of ca 96% or it can be obtained from the direct nitration of toluene. 

Processes. Toluene is nitrated ia two stages. Mononitration occurs ia mixed acid, 30% HNO and 55% H2SO4, at 30—70°C ia a series of continuous stirred-tank reactors. Heat is Hberated and must be removed. The isomer distribution is approximately 58% o-nitrotoluene 38% -nitrotoluene, and 4% y -nitrotoluene (Fig. 1). 

The TDI mixtures are produced by a series of reactions starting from toluene. The first stage is the nitration of the toluene to yield 2-nitrotoluene and 4-nitrotoluene in roughly equal proportions. These can be further nitrated, the 4-isomer yielding only 2,4-dinitrotoluene and 2-nitrotoluene both the 2,4- and the 2,6-dinitro compound Figure 27.1). 

If toluene is dinitrated without separation a mixture of about 80% 2,4-dinitrotoluene and 20% 2,6-dinitrotoluene is obtained. Nitration of separated 2-nitrotoluene will yield a mixture of approximately 65% of the 2,4- and 35% of... 

Three products are possible from nitration of toluene o-nitrotoluene, rw-nitro-toluene, and p-nitrotoluene. All ar e formed, but not in equal amounts. Together, the ortho-and para-substituted isomers make up 97% of the product mixture the rneta only 3%. 

Trinitrotoluene (TNT) is made by nitration of toluene. Display electrostatic potential maps for toluene, 4-nitrotoluene (the first nitration product) and 2,4-dinitrotoluene (the second nitration product). Are the second and third nitration steps likely to be easier or more difficult than the initial nitration of toluene Explain. 

While the direct halogenation of toluene gives a mixture of isomers that is difficult to separate into the pure isomers, the isomeric o- and /r-nitrotoluenes 6a and 6b, formed by nitration, are easy to separate from each other. Thus reduction of the single o- or /j-nitrotoluene 6 to the o- or /j-toluidine 7a or 7b respectively, followed by conversion into the corresponding diazonium salt 8 and a subsequent Sandmeyer reaction leads to the pure o- or /j-halotoluene 9. 

Toluene (methylbenzene) is similar to benzene as a mononuclear aromatic, but it is more active due to presence of tbe electron-donating metbyl group. However, toluene is much less useful than benzene because it produces more polysubstituted products. Most of tbe toluene extracted for cbemical use is converted to benzene via dealkylation or disproportionation. Tbe rest is used to produce a limited number of petro-cbemicals. Tbe main reactions related to tbe cbemical use of toluene (other than conversion to benzene) are the oxidation of the methyl substituent and the hydrogenation of the phenyl group. Electrophilic substitution is limited to the nitration of toluene for producing mono-nitrotoluene and dinitrotoluenes. These compounds are important synthetic intermediates. 

Nitration of toluene is the only important reaction that involves the aromatic ring rather than the aliphatic methyl group. The nitration reaction occurs with an electrophilic substitution hy the nitronium ion. The reaction conditions are milder than those for henzene due to the activation of the ring hy the methyl substituent. A mixture of nitrotoluenes results. The two important monosubstituted nitrotoluenes are o- and p-nitrotoluenes ... 

Toluidine, nitrotoluene isomers, diaminotoluene, and dinitro-toluene isomers... 

Dichlorobenzene, aminotoluene, nitrotoluene isomers, diamino-toluene, and dinitrotoluene isomers... 

An important aspect of nitrating toluene to nitrotoluene is the very low solubility of toluene and nitroioluenes in nitrating mix Is. Therefore the nitration proceeds in a two-phase system and the rate of nitration depends greatly on dispersion, which in turn depends on keeping the two phases efficiently stirred. This is emphasized in Fig 4, which gives the yield of MNT for a 11/64/25% nitric acid/sulfuric acid/water MA and a nitration time of 30 minutes as a function of stirring speed... 

If an unfractionated mixt of the mononitro-toluene isomers is used (ie, the product of straight nitration of toluene), TNT with a mp of 78.7° is produced. If the starting material is free from m-nitrotoluene, TNT with a mp of 80.6° is claimed... 

Morrison and Migdalof (Ref 14) irradiated o-nitrotoluene and p-nitrotoluene with a Pyrex-filtered mercury lamp using D20 and p-dioxane as solvents. C-D bonds formed with o-nitrotoluene, with no C-D formation for p-nitro-toluene - ... 

This reaction cannot be elementary. We can hardly expect three nitric acid molecules to react at all three toluene sites (these are the ortho and para sites meta substitution is not favored) in a glorious, four-body collision. Thus, the fourth-order rate expression 01 = kab is implausible. Instead, the mechanism of the TNT reaction involves at least seven steps (two reactions leading to ortho- or /mra-nitrotoluene, three reactions leading to 2,4- or 2,6-dinitrotoluene, and two reactions leading to 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene). Each step would require only a two-body collision, could be elementary, and could be governed by a second-order rate equation. Chapter 2 shows how the component balance equations can be solved for multiple reactions so that an assumed mechanism can be tested experimentally. For the toluene nitration, even the set of seven series and parallel reactions may not constitute an adequate mechanism since an experimental study found the reaction to be 1.3 order in toluene and 1.2 order in nitric acid for an overall order of 2.5 rather than the expected value of 2. 

Keggin type H3PW)2O40 is a stable, recyclable and effective catalyst for H2S04-free liquid phase nitration of bezene, chlorobenzene and toluene with nitric acid as a nitration agent. Higher para-selectivity of nitrotoluene was obtained, and the result implies that HPA can effectively catalyze the liquid phase nitration of various aromatics as an environmentally friendly nitration process. 

The effect of solvent upon k2 has been reported , and it was concluded that the activated complex is not sufficiently polar to be called ionic . The oxidations of toluene and triphenylmethane exhibit primary kinetic deuterium isotope effects of 2.4 and ca. 4 respectively. No isotopic mixing occurred during formation of the Etard complex from a mixture of normal and deuterated o-nitrotoluene . The chromyl chloride oxidation of a series of substituted diphenylmethanes revealed that electron-withdrawing substituents slow reaction while electronreleasing groups have the opposite effect, the values ofp andp being —2.28 + 0.08 and —2.20 + 0.07 respectively . ... 

Robertson JB, JC Spain, JD Haddock, DT Gibson (1992) Oxidation of nitrotoluenes by toluene dioxygenase evidence for a monooxygenase reaction. Appl Environ Microbiol 58 2643-2648. 

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