134236-96-7Relevant academic research and scientific papers
The continuous acid-catalyzed dehydration of alcohols in supercritical fluids: A new approach to the cleaner synthesis of acetals, ketals, and ethers with high selectivity
Gray, William K.,Smail, Fiona R.,Hitzler, Martin G.,Ross, Stephen K.,Poliakoff, Martyn
, p. 10711 - 10718 (1999)
We report a new continuous method for forming ethers, acetals and ketals using solid acid catalysts, DELOXAN ASP or AMBERLYST 15, and supercritical fluid solvents. In the case of ether formation, we observe a high selectivity for linear alkyl ethers with little rearrangement to give branched ethers. Such rearrangement is common in conventional syntheses. Our approach is effective for a range of n-alcohols up to n-octanol and also for the secondary alcohol 2-propanol. In the reaction of phenol with an alkylating agent, the continuous reaction can be tuned to give preferential O- or C- alkylation with up to 49% O-alkylation with supercritical propene. We also investigate the synthesis of a range of cyclic ethers and show an improved method for the synthesis of THF from 1,4-butandiol under very mild conditions.
