Synthesis of trimesic acid by catalytic oxidation of mesitylene in a loop bubble reactor

I&EC 74

Zhaohui Liu, tjzxb@tju.edu.cn, Xubin Zhang, tjzxb@tju.edu.cn, Wangfeng Cai, tjzxb@tju.edu.cn, Yan Wang, tjzxb@tju.edu.cn, and Feng Xin, tjzxb@tju.edu.cn. School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Tianjin University, Tianjin, 300072, China
With a novel loop bubble reactor, and the solvent of acetic acid, and the catalytic system of cobalt acetate, manganese acetate, and the initiator of tetrabromoethane, the preparation of trimesic acid from mesitylene by gas-liquid phase catalytic oxidation using air was studied. The effect of reaction conditions (temperature, pressure, solvent ratio, catalyst ratio, water content in solvent) on the yield of trimesic acid under semibatch operation, was investigated and the optimum results were obtained as followed: 215~220oC, 2.0MPa, mesitylene:Co (weight ratio) is 100:0.7~1.0, Co:Mn:Br (weight ratio) is 1:0.6:3, solvent:mesitylene (volume ratio) is 5.5:1, water content in solvent is 6~7%. These optimum reaction conditions were used in continuous operation, and also gave good results: reaction weight yield (mesitylene as calculate base) is over 140%, and the acid value of product is greater than 780.
 

IEC Poster Session
8:00 PM-10:00 PM, Tuesday, August 21, 2007 BCEC -- Exhibit Hall - B2, Poster

Division of Industrial & Engineering Chemistry

The 234th ACS National Meeting, Boston, MA, August 19-23, 2007