Dehydrogenation

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In chemistry, dehydrogenation is a chemical reaction that involves the removal of hydrogen, usually from an organic molecule. It is the reverse of hydrogenation. Dehydrogenation is important, both as a useful reaction and a serious problem. At its simplest, it's a useful way of converting alkanes, which are relatively inert and thus low-valued, to olefins, which are reactive and thus more valuable. Alkenes are precursors to aldehydes (R−CH=O), alcohols (R−OH), polymers, and aromatics. [1] As a problematic reaction, the fouling and inactivation of many catalysts arises via coking, which is the dehydrogenative polymerization of organic substrates. [2]

Contents

Enzymes that catalyze dehydrogenation are called dehydrogenases.

Heterogeneous catalytic routes

Styrene

Dehydrogenation processes are used extensively to produce aromatics in the petrochemical industry. Such processes are highly endothermic and require temperatures of 500 °C and above. [1] [3] Dehydrogenation also converts saturated fats to unsaturated fats. One of the largest scale dehydrogenation reactions is the production of styrene by dehydrogenation of ethylbenzene. Typical dehydrogenation catalysts are based on iron(III) oxide, promoted by several percent potassium oxide or potassium carbonate. [4]

C6H5CH2CH3 → C6H5CH=CH2 + H2

Other alkenes

The cracking processes especially fluid catalytic cracking and steam cracker produce high-purity mono-olefins from paraffins. Typical operating conditions use chromium (III) oxide catalyst at 500 °C. Target products are propylene, butenes, and isopentane, etc. These simple compounds are important raw materials for the synthesis of polymers and gasoline additives.[ citation needed ]

Oxidative dehydrogenation

Relative to thermal cracking of alkanes, oxidative dehydrogenation (ODH) is of interest for two reasons: (1) undesired reactions take place at high temperature leading to coking and catalyst deactivation, making frequent regeneration of the catalyst unavoidable, (2) thermal dehydrogenation is expensive as it requires a large amount of heat. Oxidative dehydrogenation (ODH) of n-butane is an alternative to classical dehydrogenation, steam cracking and fluid catalytic cracking processes. [5] [6]

Formaldehyde is produced industrially by oxidative dehydrogenation of methanol. This reaction can also be viewed as a dehydrogenation using O2 as the acceptor. The most common catalysts are silver metal, iron(III) oxide, [7] iron molybdenum oxides [e.g. iron(III) molybdate] with a molybdenum-enriched surface, [8] or vanadium oxides. In the commonly used formox process, methanol and oxygen react at ca. 250–400 °C in presence of iron oxide in combination with molybdenum and/or vanadium to produce formaldehyde according to the chemical equation: [9]

CH3OH + O2 → 2 CH2O + 2 H2O

Homogeneous catalytic routes

A variety of dehydrogenation processes have been described for organic compounds. These dehydrogenation is of interest in the synthesis of fine organic chemicals. [10] Such reactions often rely on transition metal catalysts. [11] [12] Dehydrogenation of unfunctionalized alkanes can be effected by homogeneous catalysis. Especially active for this reaction are pincer complexes. [13] [14]

Stoichiometric processes

Dehydrogenation of amines to nitriles can be accomplished using a variety of reagents, such as iodine pentafluoride (IF
5
).[ citation needed ]

In typical aromatization, six-membered alicyclic rings, e.g. cyclohexene, can be aromatized in the presence of hydrogenation acceptors. The elements sulfur and selenium promote this process. On the laboratory scale, quinones, especially 2,3-dichloro-5,6-dicyano-1,4-benzoquinone (DDQ) are effective.[ citation needed ]

DDQ-dehydrogenation.png

Main group hydrides

Dehydrogenation of ammonia borane. DAB secondary path.png
Dehydrogenation of ammonia borane.

The dehydrogenative coupling of silanes has also been developed. [15]

n PhSiH3[PhSiH]n + n H2

The dehydrogenation of amine-boranes is related reaction. This process once gained interests for its potential for hydrogen storage. [16]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Catalysis</span> Process of increasing the rate of a chemical reaction

Catalysis is the increase in rate of a chemical reaction due to an added substance known as a catalyst. Catalysts are not consumed by the reaction and remain unchanged after it. If the reaction is rapid and the catalyst recycles quickly, very small amounts of catalyst often suffice; mixing, surface area, and temperature are important factors in reaction rate. Catalysts generally react with one or more reactants to form intermediates that subsequently give the final reaction product, in the process of regenerating the catalyst.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hydrogenation</span> Chemical reaction between molecular hydrogen and another compound or element

Hydrogenation is a chemical reaction between molecular hydrogen (H2) and another compound or element, usually in the presence of a catalyst such as nickel, palladium or platinum. The process is commonly employed to reduce or saturate organic compounds. Hydrogenation typically constitutes the addition of pairs of hydrogen atoms to a molecule, often an alkene. Catalysts are required for the reaction to be usable; non-catalytic hydrogenation takes place only at very high temperatures. Hydrogenation reduces double and triple bonds in hydrocarbons.

Propylene, also known as propene, is an unsaturated organic compound with the chemical formula CH3CH=CH2. It has one double bond, and is the second simplest member of the alkene class of hydrocarbons. It is a colorless gas with a faint petroleum-like odor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heterogeneous catalysis</span> Type of catalysis involving reactants & catalysts in different phases of matter

Heterogeneous catalysis is catalysis where the phase of catalysts differs from that of the reactants or products. The process contrasts with homogeneous catalysis where the reactants, products and catalyst exist in the same phase. Phase distinguishes between not only solid, liquid, and gas components, but also immiscible mixtures, or anywhere an interface is present.

The Formox process produces formaldehyde. Formox is a registered trademark owned by Johnson Matthey. The process was originally invented jointly by Swedish chemical company Perstorp and Reichhold Chemicals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Transition metal pincer complex</span>

In chemistry, a transition metal pincer complex is a type of coordination complex with a pincer ligand. Pincer ligands are chelating agents that binds tightly to three adjacent coplanar sites in a meridional configuration. The inflexibility of the pincer-metal interaction confers high thermal stability to the resulting complexes. This stability is in part ascribed to the constrained geometry of the pincer, which inhibits cyclometallation of the organic substituents on the donor sites at each end. In the absence of this effect, cyclometallation is often a significant deactivation process for complexes, in particular limiting their ability to effect C-H bond activation. The organic substituents also define a hydrophobic pocket around the reactive coordination site. Stoichiometric and catalytic applications of pincer complexes have been studied at an accelerating pace since the mid-1970s. Most pincer ligands contain phosphines. Reactions of metal-pincer complexes are localized at three sites perpendicular to the plane of the pincer ligand, although in some cases one arm is hemi-labile and an additional coordination site is generated transiently. Early examples of pincer ligands were anionic with a carbanion as the central donor site and flanking phosphine donors; these compounds are referred to as PCP pincers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Catalytic reforming</span> Chemical process used in oil refining

Catalytic reforming is a chemical process used to convert petroleum refinery naphthas distilled from crude oil into high-octane liquid products called reformates, which are premium blending stocks for high-octane gasoline. The process converts low-octane linear hydrocarbons (paraffins) into branched alkanes (isoparaffins) and cyclic naphthenes, which are then partially dehydrogenated to produce high-octane aromatic hydrocarbons. The dehydrogenation also produces significant amounts of byproduct hydrogen gas, which is fed into other refinery processes such as hydrocracking. A side reaction is hydrogenolysis, which produces light hydrocarbons of lower value, such as methane, ethane, propane and butanes.

In chemistry, transfer hydrogenation is a chemical reaction involving the addition of hydrogen to a compound from a source other than molecular H2. It is applied in laboratory and industrial organic synthesis to saturate organic compounds and reduce ketones to alcohols, and imines to amines. It avoids the need for high-pressure molecular H2 used in conventional hydrogenation. Transfer hydrogenation usually occurs at mild temperature and pressure conditions using organic or organometallic catalysts, many of which are chiral, allowing efficient asymmetric synthesis. It uses hydrogen donor compounds such as formic acid, isopropanol or dihydroanthracene, dehydrogenating them to CO2, acetone, or anthracene respectively. Often, the donor molecules also function as solvents for the reaction. A large scale application of transfer hydrogenation is coal liquefaction using "donor solvents" such as tetralin.

In organic chemistry and organometallic chemistry, carbon–hydrogen bond activation is a type of organic reaction in which a carbon–hydrogen bond is cleaved and replaced with a C−X bond. Some authors further restrict the term C–H activation to reactions in which a C–H bond, one that is typically considered to be "unreactive", interacts with a transition metal center M, resulting in its cleavage and the generation of an organometallic species with an M–C bond. The intermediate of this step could then undergo subsequent reactions with other reagents, either in situ or in a separate step, to produce the functionalized product.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Concurrent tandem catalysis</span>

Concurrent tandem catalysis (CTC) is a technique in chemistry where multiple catalysts produce a product otherwise not accessible by a single catalyst. It is usually practiced as homogeneous catalysis. Scheme 1 illustrates this process. Molecule A enters this catalytic system to produce the comonomer, B, which along with A enters the next catalytic process to produce the final product, P. This one-pot approach can decrease product loss from isolation or purification of intermediates. Reactions with relatively unstable products can be generated as intermediates because they are only transient species and are immediately used in a consecutive reaction.

Amide reduction is a reaction in organic synthesis where an amide is reduced to either an amine or an aldehyde functional group.

Catalytic oxidation are processes that rely on catalysts to introduce oxygen into organic and inorganic compounds. Many applications, including the focus of this article, involve oxidation by oxygen. Such processes are conducted on a large scale for the remediation of pollutants, production of valuable chemicals, and the production of energy.

Georgiy Borisovich Shul’pin was born in Moscow, Russia. He graduated with a M.S. degree in chemistry from the Chemistry Department of Moscow State University in 1969. Between 1969 and 1972, he was a postgraduate student at the Nesmeyanov Institute of Organoelement Compounds under the direction of Prof. A. N. Nesmeyanov and received his Ph.D. in organometallic chemistry in 1975. He received his Dr. of Sciences degree in 2013.

Gábor Laurenczy is a Hungarian-Swiss chemist and academic. He is a Professor Emeritus at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne. He is academician, External Member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hydrogen auto-transfer</span>

Hydrogen auto-transfer, also known as borrowing hydrogen, is the activation of a chemical reaction by temporary transfer of two hydrogen atoms from the reactant to a catalyst and return of those hydrogen atoms back to a reaction intermediate to form the final product. Two major classes of borrowing hydrogen reactions exist: (a) those that result in hydroxyl substitution, and (b) those that result in carbonyl addition. In the former case, alcohol dehydrogenation generates a transient carbonyl compound that is subject to condensation followed by the return of hydrogen. In the latter case, alcohol dehydrogenation is followed by reductive generation of a nucleophile, which triggers carbonyl addition. As borrowing hydrogen processes avoid manipulations otherwise required for discrete alcohol oxidation and the use of stoichiometric organometallic reagents, they typically display high levels of atom-economy and, hence, are viewed as examples of Green chemistry.

The first time a catalyst was used in the industry was in 1746 by J. Roebuck in the manufacture of lead chamber sulfuric acid. Since then catalysts have been in use in a large portion of the chemical industry. In the start only pure components were used as catalysts, but after the year 1900 multicomponent catalysts were studied and are now commonly used in the industry.

Operando spectroscopy is an analytical methodology wherein the spectroscopic characterization of materials undergoing reaction is coupled simultaneously with measurement of catalytic activity and selectivity. The primary concern of this methodology is to establish structure-reactivity/selectivity relationships of catalysts and thereby yield information about mechanisms. Other uses include those in engineering improvements to existing catalytic materials and processes and in developing new ones.

Methane functionalization is the process of converting methane in its gaseous state to another molecule with a functional group, typically methanol or acetic acid, through the use of transition metal catalysts.

Karen Ila Goldberg is an American chemist, currently the Vagelos Professor of Energy Research at University of Pennsylvania. Goldberg is most known for her work in inorganic and organometallic chemistry. Her most recent research focuses on catalysis, particularly on developing catalysts for oxidation, as well as the synthesis and activation of molecular oxygen. In 2018, Goldberg was elected to the National Academy of Sciences.

R. Tom Baker is an inorganic chemist known for the development and application of inorganic transition metal-based catalysis.

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