Water substitute concept, product

Hydrolysis of metal alkoxides is the basis for the sol-gel method of preparation of oxide materials therefore, reactions of metal alkoxides with water in various solvents, and primarily in alcohols, may be considered as their most important chemical properties. For many years the sol-gel method was mosdy associated with hydrolysis of Si(OR)4, discussed in numerous original papers and reviews [242, 1793,243]. Hydrolysis of M(OR) , in contrast to hydrolysis of Si(OR)4, is an extremely quick process therefore, the main concepts well developed for Si(OR)4 cannot be applied to hydrolysis of alcoholic derivatives of metals. Moreover, it proved impossible to apply classical kinetic approaches successfully used for the hydrolysis of Si(OR)4 to the study of the hydrolysis of metal alkoxides. A higher coordination number of metals in their alcoholic derivatives in comparison with Si(OR)4 leads to the high tendency to oligomerization of metal alkoxides in their solutions prior to hydrolysis step as well as to the continuation of this process of oligomerization and polymerization after first steps of substitution of alkoxide groups by hydroxides in the course of their reactions with water molecules. This results in extremely complicated oligomeric and polymeric structures of the metal alkoxides hydrolysis products. 

The concept of co-carbonylation of methanol/methyl acetate mixtures was first introduced by BASF in the early 1950s, but the reaction chemistry was not fully developed to commercial realization [75]. Not until the mid-1980s, after the development of carbonylation processes to produce acetic acid and acetic anhydride, were co-carbonylation processes patented using homogeneous rhodium/iodine catalyst systems (Table 2) [2, 56]. The basic process concept is to manufacture acetic acid and acetic anhydride from methanol and carbon monoxide as the only raw materials and to generate methyl acetate within the process. Similiarly, the suitability of dimethyl ether as a raw material for the generation of the anhydride equivalent in addition to or as a substitute for methyl acetate was revealed by Hoechst [76]. To produce a small fraction of acetic acid besides acetic anhydride as the main product, the carbonylation of methyl acetate could be conducted with small amounts of water or methanol. This variant, first demonstrated by Hoechst [56], is practiced by Eastman Kodak [2]. 

Thus, bromination (which can be achieved by shaking powdered coal with bromine water in carbon tetrachloride or in chloroform) is also believed to involve addition and substitution reactions the products can contain up to 20% w/w bromine. A similar concept has been invoked for the interaction of iodine with coal but the reaction of fluorine with coal will ultimately yield a mixture of fluorocarbon oils. 

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