Zeolites phenol hydrogenation

Keywords Phenol, Hydrogen peroxide, Ceramization, WHPCO, OOMW, Zeolite. 

In the phenol hydrogenation process phenol is fed in the gas phase with hydrogen at 140-170°C through a catalyst bed at atmospheric pressure. The catalyst generally consists of 0.2-0.5 wt.% palladium on a zeolite carrier. The yield exceeds 95% at quantitative conversion. Figure 2.28 shows the flow diagram for the process. 

One of the exciting results to come out of heterogeneous catalysis research since the early 1980s is the discovery and development of catalysts that employ hydrogen peroxide to selectively oxidize organic compounds at low temperatures in the liquid phase. These catalysts are based on titanium, and the important discovery was a way to isolate titanium in framework locations of the inner cavities of zeolites (molecular sieves). Thus, mild oxidations may be run in water or water-soluble solvents. Practicing organic chemists now have a way to catalytically oxidize benzene to phenols alkanes to alcohols and ketones primary alcohols to aldehydes, acids, esters, and acetals secondary alcohols to ketones primary amines to oximes secondary amines to hydroxyl-amines and tertiary amines to amine oxides. 

Zeolite based ceramics as catalysts for wet hydrogen peroxide catalytic oxidation of phenol and poly-phenols... 

Titanium-containing zeolite was an efficient catalyst for oxidation of benzene with hydrogen peroxide in a microwave field, affording phenol with high selectivity. It was reported that microwaves had a strong effect on the selectivity of the reaction. 

This chapter focuses on several recent topics of novel catalyst design with metal complexes on oxide surfaces for selective catalysis, such as stQbene epoxidation, asymmetric BINOL synthesis, shape-selective aUcene hydrogenation and selective benzene-to-phenol synthesis, which have been achieved by novel strategies for the creation of active structures at oxide surfaces such as surface isolation and creation of unsaturated Ru complexes, chiral self-dimerization of supported V complexes, molecular imprinting of supported Rh complexes, and in situ synthesis of Re clusters in zeolite pores (Figure 10.1). 

Selective hydroxylation of phenol with hydrogen peroxide was reported on acid zeolite catalysts [91-92]. Peroxonium ions, formed by H2O2 protonation, are the oxidizing species. When the reaction is carried out on a faujasite catalyst, a mixture of hydroxybenzenes and tars is obtained [91]. In the presence of H-ZSM-5 on the other hand, no tar formation was mentioned (which does not necessarily mean that it was absent) and p-selectivities close to 100% were reported for the hydroxylation [92]. These superior selectivities reflect the shape selective properties of ZSM type zeolites. 

Zeolite catalysts in many forms are used for important commercial processes. The studies were extended to L zeolites, mordenite, erionite, and dealuminated faujasites and mordenites. More attention is paid now to zeolites with univalent and multivalent cations and to multicomponent catalysts. Among these some important examples are the tellurium-containing catalyst for hydrocarbon dehydrocyclization (42), the difunctional Ni- and Pd-zeolite catalysts for benzene hydrodimerization to phenylcyclohexane (42), the catalyst for the hydrogenation of phenol cyclohexanol (44), the 4% Ni/NaY which forms butanol, 2-ethylhexanol, 2-ethylhexanal, and 2-ethylhexanol from a mixture of n-butyraldehyde and hydrogen. 

The direct hydroxylation of benzene and aromatics with a mixture of 02 and H2 have been performed by simultaneously mixing benzene, oxygen and hydrogen in the liquid phase using a very complicated system containing a multi-component catalyst, a solvent and some additives. Besides the possibility of an explosive gas reaction, these hydroxylations gave only very low yields, 0.0014—0.69% of phenol and aromatic alcohols. For example, Pd-containing titanium silicalite zeolites catalyzed... 

Another pertinent example is provided by the manufacture of caprolactam [135]. Current processes are based on toluene or benzene as feedstock, which can be converted to cyclohexanone via cyclohexane or phenol. More recently, Asahi Chemical [136] developed a new process via ruthenium-catalysed selective hydrogenation to cyclohexene, followed by zeolite-catalysed hydration to cyclo-hexanol and dehydrogenation (Fig. 1.49). The cyclohexanone is then converted to caprolactam via ammoximation with NH3/H202 and zeolite-catalysed Beckmann rearrangement as developed by Sumitomo (see earlier). 

Zeolites have been used as (acid) catalysts in hydration/dehydration reactions. A pertinent example is the Asahi process for the hydration of cyclohexene to cyclo-hexanol over a high silica (Si/Al>20), H-ZSM-5 type catalyst [57]. This process has been operated successfully on a 60000 tpa scale since 1990, although many problems still remain [57] mainly due to catalyst deactivation. The hydration of cyclohexanene is a key step in an alternative route to cyclohexanone (and phenol) from benzene (see Fig. 2.19). The conventional route involves hydrogenation to cyclohexane followed by autoxidation to a mixture of cyclohexanol and... 

The incorporation of Ti into various framework zeolite structures has been a very active research area, particularly during the last 6 years, because it leads to potentially useful catalysts in the oxidation of various organic substrates with diluted hydrogen peroxide [1-7]. The zeolite structures, where Ti incorporation has been achieved are ZSM-5 (TS-1) [1], ZSM-11 (TS-2) [2] ZSM-48 [3] and beta [4]. Recently, mesoporous titanium silicates Ti-MCM-41 and Ti-HMS have also been reported [5]. TS-1 and TS-2 were found to be highly active and selective catalysts in various oxidation reactions [6,7]. All other Ti-modified zeolites and molecular sieves had limited but interesting catalytic activities. For example, Ti-ZSM-48 was found to be inactive in the hydroxylation of phenol [8]. Ti-MCM-41 and Ti-HMS catalyzed the oxidation of very bulky substrates like 2,6-di-tert-butylphenol, norbomylene and a-terpineol [5], but they were found to be inactive in the oxidation of alkanes [9a], primary amines [9b] and the ammoximation of carbonyl compounds [9a]. As for Ti-P, it was found to be active in the epoxidation of alkenes and the oxidation of alkanes and alcohols [10], even though the conversion of alkanes was very low. Davis et al. [11,12] also reported that Ti-P had limited oxidation and epoxidation activities. In a recent investigation, we found that Ti-P had a turnover number in the oxidation of propyl amine equal to one third that of TS-1 and TS-2 [9b]. As seen, often the difference in catalytic behaviors is not attributable to Ti sites accessibility. 

Besides the above CD processes, some of the recent novel applications of CD are outlined below. The production of amines from the hydrogenation of aniline and the selective production of diethanolamine from the reaction of monoethanolamine and ethylene oxide have been reviewed. A patent on the production of phenol from cumene hydroperoxide disclosed that solid acid catalysts such as zeolites, ion-exchange resins achieved 100% conversion with about 60 /o selectivity to phenol at 50-90°C and 0-10 psig. This process utilizes the heat of the decomposition of cumene hydroperoxide to effect the separation of the lower boiling components and hence reduces the energy cost and carbon dioxide emissions. 

In a typical synthesis, a mixture of C13H12O2 bisphenols was prepared in 80% yield by slow addition of a solution of trioxane (0.036 mole) in benzene (over 1.75 hour) to a stirred, liquid phase suspension of phenol (0.64 mole) and HY zeolite (5 gm) at 182°. The ratio of the 2,2, 2,4, and 4,4 isomers was 1.3 1.8 1.0. This technique, which afforded very high instantaneous ratios of phenol to aldehyde, prevented rapid catalyst aging. Generally, high yields were observed for carbonyl reactants with no a-hydrogens, since competitive intracrystalline aldol condensation reactions were eliminated. 

The selective insertion of an oxygen atom into a benzene carbon-hydrogen bond to yield phenol is not a classical organic chemistry reaction. The first process for such a reactions was the Solutia process, based on discoveries by Panov and coworkers at the Boreskov Institute of Catalysis in Novosibirsk and then developed in close cooperation with Monsanto. In this process, the oxidant is nitrous oxide, N2O, while an iron-containing zeolite is used as the catalyst (Equation 13.4) ... 

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