frogfot - 6-11-2004 at 14:21
Was thinking about some OTC sources of propanoic/butanoic alcohol/acid.. but only one I can by is propanoic acid from a cosmetics supplier..
Now the point of this thread is to find a practical method to oxidise cheap alkanes (propane/butane) to obtain abovementioned chems.
I found something interesting in a book about this subject, but there are no further references..
(from Comprehensive Org. Chem., The synthesis and reactions of org. compounds, vol 1)
"light alkanes (C1-C4) can be oxidised to alcohols by oxygen in acetonitrile at room temp. in presence of SnCl2; here methane is less reactive
than ethane, propane or butane"
Any idea on how fast is this reaction? I thoat that this could be done with a big vessel with SnCl2/acetonitrile (possibly some cheaper solvent) and a
bubbler that feeds a very diluted stream of propane/butane mix in air...