| 摘要 |
Alcohols and ethers are produced by passing an olefine, water or an alcohol, and a compound of phosphorus in a disperse phase through a reaction zone in which they are heated together. The ethers may be symmetrical or mixed. The phosphorus compounds may be acid or basic, and include phosphoric acid and its esters, amides, and amide-esters, phosphorous acid and its amides and amide-esters, basic compounds such as phosphines, tetraphosphonium bases and their salts, and triphosphine oxides. A large number of these compounds are mentioned. The acid compounds may be used with volatile bases such as ammonia and pyridine, and salts such as ammonium, alkyl ammonium and pyridine phosphates may be used. Preferably the water or alcohol and the olefine react in the vapour state, and the reaction tube may be provided with baffles or other means for effecting turbulence. The reagents may be preheated to 150-200 DEG C., the catalyst (which may be dissolved in water or alcohol) being injected into the mixture immediately before the reaction zone. Alternatively the catalyst may be dissolved in a liquid which assists in the separation of the products by forming an azeotropic mixture with one constituent. Preferably the products are cooled rapidly, so as to produce fractional or complete condensation. In examples: (1) ethylene and water vapour at 15 atmospheres pressure are preheated to 220 DEG C. and passed through a baffled tube the walls of which are heated to 280 DEG C. and a 5 per cent aqueous solution of triethyl phosphate is injected near the entrance; the product is ethyl alcohol, or, with a reduced proportion of water (such as 10 per cent of the mixture) ethyl ether: (2) ethyl alcohol vapour at 15 atmospheres pressure is mixed with ethylene or propylene and reacted as in the first example with an injection of aqueous phosphoric acid or ammonium phosphate, diethyl or ethyl-isopropyl ether being produced; (3) the process of example 2 is modified by having sodium or other metaphosphate or pumice in the reaction tube. The second Provisional Specification describes a modification in which the olefine containing the gaseous catalyst is bubbled through the liquid alcohol which may contain a solid catalyst. In that case the gaseous catalyst may be omitted. |
