Oxycyanations over Palladium Catalyst
Naoya Kominami, Hitoshi Nakajima, Nobuhiro Tamura · 石油学会誌 · 1971
Acrylonitrile was obtained by the reaction of ethylene with hydrogen cyanide and oxygen over palladium or rhodium catalyst, and the reaction was named Oxycyanation. The oxycyanation of propylene Aielded a mixture of methacrylonitrile, cis- and trans-crotononitrile and allyl cyanide. The addition of hydrogen cyanide to ethylene or propylene was observed as a side reaction. The addition of CuCl2 to PdCl2 catalyst increased the rate of oxycyanation, but also increased the specific rate of deactivation of the catalyst. Active carbon, active alumina and silica gel were useful to the same degree as the catalyst carrier, and the ratio of byproduced propionitrile to acrylonitrile was the largest over the catalyst on active alumina carrier.