Oxidation of liquid paraffins

Department of Chemistry, Dr. Hari Singh Gour University, Sagar-470 003, Madhya Pradesh, India E-mail : drtssrao@yahoo.co. in Manuscript received 28 December 2011, revised 02 May 2012, accepted 07 June 2012 Alkylhydroperoxides formed initially as the products of paraffin oxidation undergo decomposition to give alcohols, ketones etc. The further oxidation of these products yields carboxylic acids. The transition metal salts like stearates of Mn, Co and Cr and acetylacetonates of Mn, Co, Cr, Mo and complexes of metals like Ru, Pd, Ni etc. can accelerate the decomposition. Temperature directly influences the radical decarbonylation and decarboxylation reactions. The rate of C-H bond activation depends not only upon the nature (primary, secondary and tertiary) but also their distance from the chain end. The oxidation of n-butane to maleic anhydride is the only commercialized process of paraffins. Higher rate of oxidation of the partial oxidation products than the starting paraffin and the irreversible deactivation of the catalysts have to be addressed. Selective photo-catalytic oxidation at ambient conditions may be the answer to use the readily available paraffin sources economically.