Instituto Superior Tecnico

Armando Pombeiro

Joäo Fraústo Da Silva

Yuzo Fujiwara

Marina Kirillova

Alexander Kirillov

Jose Armando Silva

Josë Silva

Patricia Reis

António F Palavra

José Armando Silva

João Fraústo Da Silva

The present invention concerns a new efficient method for the selective transformation, under mild conditions and in aqueous medium, of gaseous (ethane, propane and n-butane) and liquid (n-pentane, n-hexane, cyclopentane and cyclohexane) alkanes into carboxylic acids bearing one more carbon atom, characterized by a single-pot low-temperature (25-60&#xb0; C.) reaction of the alkane with carbon monoxide in water/acetonitrile liquid medium, either in the absence or in the presence of a metal catalyst, in systems containing also an oxidant (a peroxodisulphate salt). 

Method for the conversion, under mild conditions and in aqueous medium, of gaseous and liquid alkanes into carboxylic acids

The invention consists on the utilization of complexes of vanadium (in the +4 and +5 oxidation states) with bi- or poly-dentate ligands coordinated by nitrogen and oxygen (N,O) or by oxygen and oxygen (O,O) atoms, namely derivatives of aminoalcohols, (hydroxyimino)dicarboxylic acids, hydroxypyranones, trifluoroacetic acid, triflic acid or inorganic acid, as catalysts for the direct single-pot conversion, under mild conditions, of methane in acetic acid, either in the absence or in the presence of carbon monoxide, and in the presence of a peroxodisulfate salt (K2S2O8), in trifluoroacetic acid (CF3COOH), according to the general reaction (I). 

Process for direct conversion of methane into acetic acid

Growing community of inventors

Lisbon, Portugal

Armando Pombeiro