TY - JOUR
T1 - Nitration of toluene in a microreactor
AU - Halder, Raghunath
AU - Lawal, Adeniyi
AU - Damavarapu, Reddy
PY - 2007/7/15
Y1 - 2007/7/15
N2 - Highly exothermic reactions such as aromatic nitration can be carried out in a highly efficient manner in microreactors due to the high heat and mass transfer rates in such reactors. In this study, nitration of toluene was conducted in a microreactor immersed in a constant temperature bath using concentrated nitric acid as the nitrating agent. The effects of residence time, reaction temperature, and acid concentration, etc., on the reactor performance were studied. The results indicate that in the microreactor the nitration reaction proceeds rapidly, even without sulfuric acid, probably by self-protonation of nitric acid. Also, no by-products were detected. The isomeric distribution of the product nitrotoluenes was found to be identical to that generally found in the mixed-acid nitration. The results were compared with the data obtained from a batch reactor, and the microreactor reaction rates were found to be much higher than the batch reactor rates.
AB - Highly exothermic reactions such as aromatic nitration can be carried out in a highly efficient manner in microreactors due to the high heat and mass transfer rates in such reactors. In this study, nitration of toluene was conducted in a microreactor immersed in a constant temperature bath using concentrated nitric acid as the nitrating agent. The effects of residence time, reaction temperature, and acid concentration, etc., on the reactor performance were studied. The results indicate that in the microreactor the nitration reaction proceeds rapidly, even without sulfuric acid, probably by self-protonation of nitric acid. Also, no by-products were detected. The isomeric distribution of the product nitrotoluenes was found to be identical to that generally found in the mixed-acid nitration. The results were compared with the data obtained from a batch reactor, and the microreactor reaction rates were found to be much higher than the batch reactor rates.
KW - Microreactor
KW - Nitration
KW - Nitric acid
KW - Nitrotoluene
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=34250808520&partnerID=8YFLogxK
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U2 - 10.1016/j.cattod.2007.04.002
DO - 10.1016/j.cattod.2007.04.002
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:34250808520
SN - 0920-5861
VL - 125
SP - 74
EP - 80
JO - Catalysis Today
JF - Catalysis Today
IS - 1-2
ER -