Book Description

The liquid-phase oxidation of organic compounds by molecular oxygen is widely encountered in nature and is of considerable im portance in various branches of the national economy. This pro cess forms the basis of many new technological processes for the production of important chemicals. At the present time, such valu able oxygen-containing compounds as synthetic aliphatiC acids and alcohols (for the replacement of edible fats), acetic, adipic, and terephthalic acids and their esters (for the production of synthetic fibers), phenol and acetone (the principal raw materials for plas tics), carbonyl compounds, ethers, and esters (as solvents and special additives) are obtained industrially by the oxidation of hy drocarbons by atmospheric oxygen in the liquid phase, that is, by the most direct and cheapest method. In the course of their production, oxygen-containing compounds (alcohols, aldehydes, ketones, acids, etc.) undergo various trans formations, which play an important role in the advanced stages of the oxidation of paraffinic, naphthenic, and alkylaromatic hydro carbons, and have a significant influence on the yield of the de sired products. For the further improvement of existing techno logical processes and the development of new methods for the pro duction of oxygen-containing compounds, detailed studies of the regular kinetic features and mechanism of their oxidation are ob viously necessary. In the past ten years, extensive material on the kinetics of the oxidation of alcohols, aldehydes, acids, ethers, and esters has ac cumulated, and the constants of the elementary stages of these complex processes have been determined.