Fischer Tropsch Synthesis : Recent Development

Mayo, D. W.; Pike, R. M.; Forbes, D. C. Microscale Organic Laboratory with Multistep and Multiscale Syntheses, 5th ed.; John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2011; pp 132-135.

8. ISBN: 0-558-05245-2 Virtual ChemLab: General Chemistry, Student Lab Manual/Workbook, V. 2.5, Third Edition, by Brian F. Woodfield and

The goals in this lab were to have a reaction occur with 4-methylcyclohexanol and an acid catalyst to form our product of 4-methylcyclohexene via an E1 reaction. This reaction is accomplished by removing the –OH group on 4-methylcyclohexanol via dehydration and to have a double bond form via a loss of a hydrogen on a β-Carbon.

This lab could have contained errors. The errors could have happened when performing the lab. Some of the possible errors in this lab are:

Furthermore, the principles and metrics of green chemistry were incorporated into the synthesis reaction through the use of the benign solvent, water. Through the use of the vacuum filtration and the recrystallization procedures, the product was further purified. Subsequently, the purity and identity of the product were evaluated through the analysis tool of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance. Ultimately, the efficiency and greenness of the reaction were measured through the calculation of the percent yield and the atom

In this experiment, the Suzuki reaction was performed using phenylboronic acid, p-iodophenol and Pd/C catalysis in potassium carbonate aqueous media to synthesize biphenyl-4-ol. The yield of final product was only 11.94% and the measured melting point was 170-175℃. Since the appearance of the product was significantly different from expected light tan color and the measured melting point was higher than literature value, the experimental synthesized product may not be the desire final product, biphenyl-4-ol, or may contain large amount of impurities.

After putting the CH2Cl2 to a beaker containing the drying agent anhydrous sodium sulfate, a sticky white solid was recovered.

The reaction took place in a conical vial and .2mL of each of the reactant samples were added to it along with some 95% ethanol. Two drops of NaOH were added shortly after and stirred at room temperature for fifteen minutes. The vial was cooled in and ice bath and crystallized. Vacuum filtration was performed to filter the crude product. The crude product was recrystallized using methanol and filtered again. We made one change to the procedure and instead of using .7mL of ethanol we

Mechanism: Key features of the Fischer Esterification mechanism are: a. protonation of the carbonyl group, b. the

The purity and identity of the product can be determined through the use of smell, IR spectroscopy and melting point determination. A general idea of what the ester is can be obtained by smell. Esters can have specific smells and if the scent can be determined, one may have an idea of the ester was created. IR spectroscopy will identify the bonds of the functional groups. The ester can be considered pure if there are no additional peaks on the IR spectrum. For example, if a peak corresponding to an alcohol group appeared on the IR spectrum it would mean the ester is not completely pure. Melting point can also be used to confirm the identity and how pure the final product is. Comparison of the experimental melting point and the literature value allows for determination of how close the experimental value is to the literature value. If the experimental value is within the range of the literature value, the product can be considered pure.

In this experiment, a Fischer Esterification reaction was performed with two unknown compounds. The unknown compounds, Acid 2 and Alcohol D, were identified by using the knowledge of the reaction that took place, and the identity of the product that was synthesized. The identification of the product resulted from analysis of IR and NMR spectra.

In this lab, nerolin, or 2-ethoxynaphthalene, was formed from 2-naphthol using a Williamson ether synthesis. This technique uses an alcohol to form an ether from an alkyl halide through an SN2 reaction.

The purpose of this lab was to synthesize the ester isopentyl acetate via an acid catalyzed esterification (Fischer Esterification) of acetic acid with isopentyl alcohol. Emil Fischer and Arthur Speier were the pioneers of this reaction referred to as Fischer Esterification. The reaction is characterized by the combining of an alcohol and an acid (with an acid catalyst) to yield and ester plus water. In order to accomplish the reaction, the reactants were

The objective of this experiment is to successfully perform a dehydration of 1-butanol and 2-butanol, also dehydrobromination of 1-bromobutane and 2-bromobutane to form the alkene products 1-butene, trans-2-butene, and cis-2-butene. The dehydration reactions react under and acid-catalysis which follows an E1 mechanism. It was found that dehydration of 1-butanol yielded 3.84% cis-2-butene, 81.83% trans-2-butene, and 14.33% 1-butene, while 2-butanol is unknown due to mechanical issues with the GC machine. For the dehydrobromination, with the addition of a

Beside catalyst, reactor design is of high importance. There are different types of reactors for performing FTS such as multi-tubular fixed bed reactors (also named trickle bed reactor, developed by Shell), Slurry Bubble Column Reactors (or SBCR, developed by Sasol), Fluidized bed and circulating fluidized bed reactors (namely Synthol, invented by Kellogg and developed by Sasol) [9, 14, 15]. Although each reactor has it's own advantages, but ease of