Chloride and Hydride Transfer as Keys to Catalytic Upcycling of Polyethylene into Liquid Alkanes

Transforming polyolefin waste into liquid alkanes through tandem cracking-alkylation reactions catalyzed by Lewis-acid chlorides offers an efficient route for single-step plastic upcycling. Lewis acids in dichloromethane establish a polar environment that stabilizes carbenium ion intermediates and catalyzes hydride transfer, enabling breaking of polyethylene C-C bonds and forming C-C bonds in alkylation. Here, we show that efficient and selective deconstruction of low-density polyethylene (LDPE) to liquid alkanes is achieved with anhydrous aluminum chloride (AlCl3) and gallium chloride (GaCl3). Already at 60 °C, complete LDPE conversion was achieved, while maintaining the selectivity for gasoline-range liquid alkanes over 70 %. AlCl3 showed an exceptional conversion rate of 5000g L D P E m o l c a t - 1 h - 1 ${{{\rm g}}_{{\rm L}{\rm D}{\rm P}{\rm E}}{{\rm \ }{\rm m}{\rm o}{\rm l}}_{{\rm c}{\rm a}{\rm t}}^{-1}{{\rm \ }{\rm h}}^{-1}}$ , surpassing other Lewis acid catalysts by two orders of magnitude. Through kinetic and mechanistic studies, we show that the rates of LDPE conversion do not correlate directly with the intrinsic strength of the Lewis acids or steric constraints that may limit the polymer to access the Lewis acid sites. Instead, the rates for the tandem processes of cracking and alkylation are primarily governed by the rates of initiation of carbenium ions and the subsequent intermolecular hydride transfer. Both jointly control the relative rates of cracking and alkylation, thereby determining the overall conversion and selectivity.

Deamination of 1-Aminoalkylphosphonic Acids: Reaction Intermediates and Selectivity

Deamination of 1-aminoalkylphosphonic acids in the reaction with HNO₂ (generated "in situ" from NaNO₂) yields a mixture of substitution products (1-hydroxyalkylphosphonic acids), elimination products (vinylphosphonic acid derivatives), rearrangement and substitution products (2-hydroxylkylphosphonic acids) as well as H₃PO₄. The variety of formed reaction products suggests that 1-phosphonoalkylium ions may be intermediates in such deamination reactions.

Catalytic Friedel-Crafts Reactions of Highly Electronically Deactivated Benzylic Alcohols

Highly electronically deactivated benzylic alcohols, including those with a CF₃ group adjacent to the OH-bearing carbon, undergo dehydrative Friedel-Crafts reactions upon exposure to catalytic Brønsted acid in 1,1,1,3,3,3-hexafluoro-2-propanol (HFIP) solvent. Titration and kinetic experiments support the involvement of higher order solvent/acid clusters in catalysis.

Nitrogen incorporation in saturated aliphatic C6-C8 hydrocarbons and ethanol in low-pressure nitrogen plasma generated by a hollow cathode discharge ion source

Ion/molecule reactions of saturated hydrocarbons (n-hexane, cyclohexane, n-heptane, n-octane and isooctane) in 28-Torr N2 plasma generated by a hollow cathode discharge ion source were investigated using an Orbitrap mass spectrometer. It was found that the ions with [M+14](+) were observed as the major ions (M: sample molecule). The exact mass analysis revealed that the ions are nitrogenated molecules, [M+N](+) formed by the reactions of N3 (+) with M. The reaction, N3 (+) + M → [M+N](+) + N2 , were examined by the density functional theory calculations. It was found that N3 (+) abstracts the H atom from hydrocarbon molecules leading to the formation of protonated imines in the forms of R'R″CNH2 (+) (i.e. C-H bond nitrogenation). This result is in accord with the fact that elimination of NH3 is the major channel for MS/MS of [M+N](+) . That is, nitrogen is incorporated in the C-H bonds of saturated hydrocarbons. No nitrogenation was observed for benzene and acetone, which was ascribed to the formation of stable charge-transfer complexes benzene⋅⋅⋅⋅N3 (+) and acetone⋅⋅⋅⋅N3 (+) revealed by density functional theory calculations. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.