Vinyl chloride industrial importance

Vinyl chloride has gained worldwide importance because of its industrial use as the precursor to PVC. It is also used in a wide variety of copolymers. The inherent flame-retardant properties, wide range of plastici2ed compounds, and low cost of polymers from vinyl chloride have made it a major industrial chemical. About 95% of current vinyl chloride production worldwide ends up in polymer or copolymer appHcations (83). Vinyl chloride also serves as a starting material for the synthesis of a variety of industrial compounds, as suggested by the number of reactions in which it can participate, although none of these appHcations will likely ever come anywhere near PVC in terms of volume. The primary nonpolymeric uses of vinyl chloride are in the manufacture of vinyHdene chloride and tri- and tetrachloroethylene [127-18-4] (83). 

In addition to homopolymers of varying molecular and particle structure, copolymers are also available commercially in which vinyl chloride is the principal monomer. Comonomers used eommercially include vinyl acetate, vinylidene chloride, propylene, acrylonitrile, vinyl isobutyl ether, and maleic, fumaric and acrylic esters. Of these the first three only are of importance to the plastics industry. The main function of introducing comonomer is to reduce the regularity of the polymer structure and thus lower the interchain forces. The polymers may therefore be proeessed at much lower temperatures and are useful in the manufacture of gramophone records and flooring compositions. 

Vinyl chloride is a reactive gas soluble in alcohol hut slightly soluble in water. It is the most important vinyl monomer in the polymer industry. The U.S. production of vinyl chloride, the 16th highest-volume chemical, was approximately 14.8 billion pounds in 1994. 

Other commercially relevant monomers have also been modeled in this study, including acrylates, styrene, and vinyl chloride.55 Symmetrical a,dienes substituted with the appropriate pendant functional group are polymerized via ADMET and utilized to model ethylene-styrene, ethylene-vinyl chloride, and ethylene-methyl acrylate copolymers. Since these models have perfect microstructure repeat units, they are a useful tool to study the effects of the functionality on the physical properties of these industrially important materials. The polymers produced have molecular weights in the range of 20,000-60,000, well within the range necessary to possess similar properties to commercial high-molecular-weight material. 

The most important industrial application of alkanesulfonates is the generation of the appropriate emulsions for polymerizing vinyl monomers, e.g., vinyl-chloride or styrene. Other uses are as textile and leather auxiliaries, formulating aids for plant protection agents, and fire-extinguishing foams. 

Organotin compounds are important industrial chemicals. One major use is as stabilizers for poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) plastics. These additives, one example of which is dioctyltinmaleate, inhibit degradation of the polymer by heat, light, and oxygen. In the absence of these tin compounds, PVC yellows and becomes brittle. 

Chloro pink, 9 310-311 Chloroplast transit peptide, 72 489 TV-Chloropolyacrylamides, 7 316 Chloroprene, 6 242, 246. See also 2-Chloro-1,3- butadiene from butadiene, 4 369 chlorocarbon/chlorohydrocarbon of industrial importance, 6 227t copolymerization of, 79 829-830 end use of chlorine, 6 134t removal in vinyl chloride manufacture, 25 642... 

One of the most important challenges in the modern chemical industry is represented by the development of new processes aimed at the exploitation of alternative raw materials, in replacement of technologies that make use of building blocks derived from oil (olefins and aromatics). This has led to a scientific activity devoted to the valorization of natural gas components, through catalytic, environmentally benign processes of transformation (1). Examples include the direct exoenthalpic transformation of methane to methanol, DME or formaldehyde, the oxidation of ethane to acetic acid or its oxychlorination to vinyl chloride, the oxidation of propane to acrylic acid or its ammoxidation to acrylonitrile, the oxidation of isobutane to... 

Gold(III) was identified as the most active catalyst for that process in 1985, when Hutchings recognized that the efficiency in catalyzing the hydrochlorination of ethyne to vinyl chloride (a very important industrial process that previously used mercury salts as catalysts) correlated with the standard reduction potential of the supported metal cation. That meant that the metal could be found as a transient species in the reaction [10]. 

Vinyl Chloride. The present-day most important process in the industrial maufac-ture of vinyl chloride is the chlorination-oxychlorination of ethylene.188-... 

Demonstration of the technical feasibility of producing mixtures of acetylene and ethylene by pyrolysis of hydrocarbons (Wulff process or Kureha process) has led to the manufacture of vinyl chloride from such mixtures. The acetylene component reacts selectively with hydrogen chloride to form vinyl chloride, the residual ethylene is converted to dichloroethane, and the latter is cracked to vinyl chloride, with the resulting hydrogen chloride being recycled. However, this type of process has not achieved the industrial importance of the all-ethylene type of process. 

The addition of HQ to alkynes has received considerable attention.29 Numerous procedures, usually involving a metal chloride catalyst, have been developed for the industrially important conversion of acetylene to vinyl chloride.29 The addition of HCI or DC1 to terminal alkylalkynes generally produces 2-chloro-1-alkenes plus 2,2-dichloroaikanes (equation 56). 

Formation of aldehydes by the reaction of alkene, CO and H2 catalysed by Co2(CO)8 was discovered by Rolen in 1938 [25]. This is the 1,2-addition of H and CHO to alkenes, and hence called hydroformylation or the oxo reaction. Production of butanal, (33) from propylene as a main product is an important industrial process. Aldol condensation of butanal, followed by hydrogenation affords 2-ethyl-1-hexanol (34), which is converted to phthalate, and used as a plasticizer of poly(vinyl chloride). 

As block copolymers are still rather expensive materials, it may be advantageous to use them as additives to important industrial polymers. In this domain, possibilities are extremely numerous and diverse. They include an improvement of chemical properties such as resistence to degradation agents, or rheological properties such as adhesion of vinylic paints, high impact properties of conventional thermoplastics, or a compatibilization of polyolefins, polystyrene and poly(vinyl chloride) allowing the reuse of polymeric waste products. The above examples illustrate the great intrinsic potential of block copolymers in the quest of new materials with specific properties. 

This is one of the largest electrochemical industries in the world. It consists in the electrolysis of sodium chloride as brine to give chlorine and caustic soda. Chlorine is used in the preparation of vinyl chloride for PVC, as a bleaching agent for paper and paper pulp, as a disinfectant, besides other chloration applications. Caustic soda is important in mineral processing, and in the paper, textile, and glass industries. Table 15.2 shows recent data for industrial consumption of chlorine and caustic soda in the USA. 

Hydrogen chloride is an important industrial chemical. The anhydrous form is used in making alkyl chlorides and vinyl chloride from olefins and acetylene, respectively, and in hydrochlorination, alkylation, and polymerization reactions (Sax and Lewis 1987). The hydrated form of hydrogen chloride is hydrochloric acid, which also is used in idustrial processes. 

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