Drug – bio-affecting and body treating compositions – Extract – body fluid – or cellular material of undetermined... – Waste or feces
Patent
1993-06-25
1994-12-27
Langel, Wayne
Drug, bio-affecting and body treating compositions
Extract, body fluid, or cellular material of undetermined...
Waste or feces
423587, C01B 15024
Patent
active
053763530
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention is a process for the production of H.sub.2 O.sub.2 using fullerenes, including buckminster-fullerene. The process involves the hydrogenation of the fullerenes and the reaction of the hydrogenated fullerenes with O.sub.2 to produce H.sub.2 O.sub.2. The process utilizes a hydrogenation catalyst and may involve a single phase reaction medium either aqueous or solvent-laden or a two-phase reaction mixture of a solvent and water. The solvent solvates the fullerenes and may solvate the hydrogenation catalyst. The H.sub.2 O.sub.2 enters the water phase for removal from the process.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
H.sub.2 O.sub.2 is a weakly acidic, clear, colorless liquid miscible in all proportions with water. It is widely used in bleaching operations, in the preparation of other peroxygen compounds, and as an oxidizing agent.
Most H.sub.2 O.sub.2 is currently made using a process involving an anthraquinone compound as the hydrogen carrier. This process was first operated in Germany during World War II. In the process, an alkyl-anthraquinone such as a 2-alkyl-anthraquinone is dissolved in a in a solvent system such as a mixture of benzene and C.sub.7 -C.sub.9 alcohols, trialkylphosphates, tetraalkyl-substituted ureas, dialkylcarboxylic acid amides, 1,3,5-tritetraalkylazene, 2,6-dialkylcyclohexane, pivalic esters, mono- and diacetylbenzoquinone, and diacetylbenzene. The dissolved anthraquinone or "working solution" is mixed with with hydrogen and a hydrogenation catalyst such as palladium-black, Raney nickel, or nickel boride. The anthraquinone is reduced to the corresponding anthraquinol (or anthrahydroquinone). The working solution is separated from the catalyst and contacted with air to again produce the anthraquinone. Simultaneously H.sub.2 O.sub.2 is formed and is then extracted with H.sub.2 O to form an H.sub.2 O.sub.2 solution. The H.sub.2 O.sub.2 solution is purified and concentrated if needed. The working solution is recycled.
This process suffers form a wide variety of maladies. Many involve secondary "over-reduction" reactions or degradation reactions of the anthraquinone during the process cycle. The solvents are often degraded through oxidation. Many of the resulting byproducts end up in the aqueous H.sub.2 O.sub.2 solution and must be subsequently removed thereby adding to the cost of the process.
The inventive process does not involve the use of anthraquinone but instead uses fullerenes as the hydrogen carrier.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
This invention is a process for the production of H.sub.2 O.sub.2 using fullerenes. The process involves the catalytic hydrogenation of the fullerenes and the reaction of the hydrogenated fullerenes with O.sub.2 to produce H.sub.2 O.sub.2. Although the process may utilize a two-phase reaction mixture of a solvent and water, a single aqueous or solvent phase is also applicable. The H.sub.2 O.sub.2 is extracted into the water phase for removal from the process.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
This invention is a process for the production of H.sub.2 O.sub.2 using fullerenes. The process involves the catalytic hydrogenation of the fullerenes and the reaction of the hydrogenated fullerenes with O.sub.2 to produce H.sub.2 O.sub.2. The process may utilize a two-phase reaction mixture of a solvent and water or an aqueous or solvent single phase. In the two-phase or solvent reaction mixture, the solvent solvates the fullerenes and any applicable hydrogenation catalyst. The H.sub.2 O.sub.2 is extracted into the water phase for removal from the process.
Fullerene hydrogen carrier
Fullerenes, recently discovered by Smalley, Curl, Kroto, Heath and O'Brien [Nature, 318, 162 (1985)], are representative of a set of carbon molecules which have been shown to have both aromatic and olefinic character. The simplest of the fullerene molecules is a sperical C.sub.60 molecule, called buckminster-fullerene, with the geometry of a truncated icosahedron--a polygon with 60 vertices and 32 faces, 12 of which are pentagons and 20 are hexagons. O
REFERENCES:
patent: 4131646 (1978-12-01), Gosser
Elvers et al., eds., "Hydrogen peroxide" Ullmann's Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry (1989) VCH Verlag, Weinheim, Germany, vol. A13, pp. 443-466.
Ismail, "Sublimation and heterogenous reactions of fullerene (C.sub.60) in different gases" Preparation Papers American Chemical Society, Division of Fuel Chemistry (1991) 36:1026-1035.
Haufler et al., "Efficient production of C.sub.60 (Buckminsterfullerene), C.sub.60 H.sub.36, and the solvated buckide ion" J. Phys. Chem. (1990) 94:8634-8636.
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