Bayer hydrazine process

From WikiChem
Revision as of 08:41, 3 July 2010 by Physchim62 (talk | contribs)
Jump to: navigation, search

The Bayer hydrazine process is a modification of the Raschig process for the industrial production of hydrazine. Both processes are based around the oxidation of ammonia to hydrazine with hypochlorite, but the Bayer process traps the hydrazine as acetone azine before hydrolyzing the azine in a separate step.[1][2]

The oxidation of ammonia by hypochlorite proceeds by a chloramine intermediate:[3]

NH3 + ClO → NH2Cl + OH
NH3 + NH2Cl + OH → N2H4 + Cl + H2O

However, the hydrazine is prone to a disproportionation reaction in the presence of chloramine:

2NH2Cl + N2H4 → 2NH4Cl + N2

The disproportionation reaction is "rather fast once some hydrazine has been formed", and a gelatin inhibitor must be used in the Raschig process to obtain appreciable yields of hydrazine.[3]

References

  1. Eichenhofer, Kurt-Wilhelm; Schliebs, Reinhard (Bayer) Production of ketazines. US Patent 3965097, issued 22 June 1976.
  2. Holleman, A. F.; Wiberg, E. Inorganic Chemistry; Academic Press: San Diego, 2001; p 619. ISBN 0-12-352651-5.
  3. 3.0 3.1 Cotton, F. Albert; Wilkinson, Geoffrey Advanced Inorganic Chemistry, 5th ed.; Wiley-Interscience: New York, 1988; p 317. ISBN 0-471-84997-9.
Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination
This page is currently licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license and any later versions of that license.