Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Acetone from Urea ?

Korialstrasz69 - 14-10-2015 at 02:05

i don't know if it's possible really,but can anyone think of anyway ?

deltaH - 14-10-2015 at 03:07

Ooh, reminds me of my six degrees of separation chemistry game in whimsy.

Let's see...

(1) Urea + water + heat over a platinum catalyst to get an equilibrium mixture of N2, H2O, H2, CO and CO2, use adsorption to scrub out CO2 and water (condenses).
(2) Apply very high-temperature Fischer-Tropsch (iron catalyst) to the Syngas to make hydrocarbons with lots of benzene and shorter olefins, distill benzene from hydrocarbons.
(3) Isolate propylene from remaining hydrocarbons. Use all other remaining hydrocarbons as fuel for the process.
(4) React propylene + benzene to make cumene over an acid catalyst (e.g. zeolite)
(5) React cumene with oxygen to make cumene hydroperoxide.
(6) Hydrolyse cumene hydroperoxide with an acid catalyst to make phenol and acetone.

QED in 6 steps :P

NOTE: Step (5) + Step (6) are industrially known as the Hock Process.

[Edited on 14-10-2015 by deltaH]

Darkstar - 14-10-2015 at 04:26

Quote: Originally posted by deltaH  
(1) Urea + water + heat over a platinum catalyst to get an equilibrium mixture of N2, H2O, H2, CO and CO2, use adsorption to scrub out CO2 and water (condenses).
(2) Apply very high-temperature Fischer-Tropsch (iron catalyst) to the Syngas to make hydrocarbons with lots of benzene and shorter olefins, distill benzene from hydrocarbons.
(3) Isolate propylene from remaining hydrocarbons. Use all other remaining hydrocarbons as fuel for the process.
(4) React propylene + benzene to make cumene over an acid catalyst (e.g. zeolite)
(5) React cumene with oxygen to make cumene hydroperoxide.
(6) Hydrolyse cumene hydroperoxide with an acid catalyst to make phenol and acetone.

QED in 6 steps :P


Come on now, delta, it can be done in half as many steps!

(1) Urea + ethanol to get ethyl carbamate.
(2) Dimethylate the ethyl carbamate using an Eschweiler–Clarke reaction to get ethyl N,N-dimethylcarbamate.
(3) Do a Grignard on ethyl N,N-dimethylcarbamate using exactly two equivalents of methylmagnesium chloride to get acetone. (very carefully and with constant stirring, slowly adding the Grignard reagent to the ethyl N,N-dimethylcarbamate and not the other way around)

Presto! Acetone from urea in only three easy steps!

*EDIT* - Come to think of it, why not just cut out the first step all together and just dimethylate both nitrogens on urea at the same time to get tetramethylurea. Then just do the Grignard in step three on that. Think it would work with tetramethylurea being so sterically hindered? Because if it would, then that would be acetone from urea in not six, not three, but two easy steps!

/sarcasm

@OP:

Seriously, though, assuming acetone is OTC where you live, why not just buy it from the hardware store? The stuff is dirt cheap.

[Edited on 10-14-2015 by Darkstar]

deltaH - 14-10-2015 at 08:07

Mine's cheaper in bulk :P:P:P

Praxichys - 14-10-2015 at 08:31

If you really can't get acetone, you could dry-distill calcium acetate with NaOH.

UC235 - 14-10-2015 at 09:41

Quote: Originally posted by Praxichys  
If you really can't get acetone, you could dry-distill calcium acetate with NaOH.


That produces methane. You just want to dry distill the acetate.

Korialstrasz69 - 14-10-2015 at 14:59

Thanks everyone