Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Reppe Process?

silonyl - 20-2-2006 at 17:12

I'm interested in the reppe process - it's the classis route to such useful solvents as THF through but-2-yne-1,4-diol produced by reaction of acetylene (ethyne) with formaldehyde. I'd like to know more about the conditions for this process, but I can't find anything in the current literature (ie what I have access to) that gives detailed reaction conditions. Anyone have access to older articles or patents (or books) who might be able to enlighten me a little?

BromicAcid - 20-2-2006 at 18:39

Just looking through the major THF thread here you would have found this has been at least touched on.

http://www.sciencemadness.org/talk/viewthread.php?tid=2437&a...
Quote:
So far, the best I have found is the reaction between acetylene and formaldehyde in the aqueous phase to give 1,4-butynediol however this would still require a catalytic hydrogenation or the like. Never the less it doesn't sound like a bad procedure, it is described in a few patents such as US 4149004 and German patent 2421407 which is also avalible as the US patent 3957888 each calling for specially prepared copper catalysts.

Sounds pretty nifty though, I have a pound of calcium carbide and I'm sure I can round up some formaldehyde, as for the hydrogenation, US patent 4,588,827 references


pH control is a must as copper acetylides can form in high amounts. Also, as stated you end up with a compound containing a double bond that has to be hydrogenated in some way. Still, at the time when I was looking over the literature it didn't appear to be a bad procedure.

S.C. Wack - 21-2-2006 at 01:09

For instance:
us3560576
us3920759
us3954669
us4093668
and the earlier patents that they mention.