Kyoungmi
Lee
,
Hongkun
Lin
and
Klavs F.
Jensen
*
Department of Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. E-mail: kfjensen@mit.edu
First published on 31st July 2017
Efficient ozonolysis of quinoline, electron deficient 8-nitroquinoline, and electron rich 6-methoxyquinoline is conducted in a Corning low flow reactor (Corning LFR) with recycling. The conversions of quinoline and 8-nitroquinoline from single-pass experiments were 75.6 and 52.4%, respectively. Upon successive oxidative work-up in a batch reactor, pyridine-2,3-dicarboxylic acid was obtained in 72.7 and 24.7% yields from the ozonolysis products of quinoline and 8-nitroquinoline, respectively. The recycling increased the overall conversions to 95.2 and 76.9%, respectively. For 6-methoxyquinoline, the conversion from the single-pass experiment, 45.2%, was increased to 73.5% with recycling under a higher liquid flow rate and substrate concentration for ozonolysis. Experimental results, conversions, residence time distribution (RTD), and the overall mass transfer coefficient are included in reactor models to determine the rate constants for ozonolysis. Predictions with the rate constants for quinoline, 8-nitroquinoline, and 6-methoxyquinoline show good agreement with the experimental results for different recycle ratios and concentrations of ozone and substrates.
Although ozonolysis is considered to be an effective oxidation method, a major concern lies in safety issues that the intermediate cyclic ozonide or peroxides may cause explosion.14 In particular, the accumulation of ozonide in a batch reactor can significantly increase the possibility of explosion triggered by the reaction with the solvent. Over the past decade, flow reactors have been developed and employed for reactions requiring careful control of operation conditions and that could be dangerous when carried out in conventional batch reactors.15–18 In a flow system, the liquid phase including the substrate is continuously flowing, inhibiting the accumulation of explosive intermediates inside the reactor. Moreover, a relatively small amount of reactants required to perform experiments further mitigates such safety hazards. In addition to the safety aspect, the residence time can be precisely controlled and scale-up is often easier. Consequently, several studies have considered the advantages of performing ozonolysis in flow. For example, Wada et al. fabricated a multichannel microreactor to demonstrate the safe performance of highly reactive processes in the microreactor. They carried out ozonolysis of 1-decene, triethyl phosphite, and octylamine achieving high conversions and yields of up to 100% even at short gas–liquid contact times less than 1 s.19 O'Brien et al. demonstrated a continuous tube-in-tube reactor using a semipermeable Teflon® AF-2400 that allowed ozone to permeate into liquid phase from the gas phase, and conducted ozonolysis of alkenes with isolated yields of 57–95%.20 In addition to ozonolysis, Irfan et al. successfully performed work-up and quenching in the same flow reaction unit, which prevented the accumulation of dangerous intermediates during work-up and showed isolated yields of 72–91%.21
A systematic study of mass transfer coefficients for an ozone/ethyl acetate–alkene system was conducted in multichannel microreactors, a Corning low flow reactor (LFR) and a Corning advanced flow reactor (AFR) by Nieves-Remacha et al., where the overall mass transfer coefficients for the LFR and AFR were of the same order of magnitude as those of the microreactors and at least one order of magnitude larger than those of conventional contactors.22 While various cyclic and aliphatic olefins have been successfully oxidized in flow reactors, ozonolysis of quinoline or quinoline derivatives has not shown high yields in flow. For example, Roydhouse et al. showed that ozonolysis of 8-hydroxyquinoline followed by oxidative work-up in a flow reactor produced pyridine-2,3-dicarboxylic acid with a low yield of 21% despite significant changes in temperature, solvent, and the amount of ozone molecules.23
In this contribution, we use a Corning low flow reactor (LFR) to achieve high conversion for ozonolysis of quinolines. The LFR is composed of heart-shaped structures to split and recombine flows for efficient mixing between phases.22,24 With the successive oxidative work-up carried out in a batch reactor, pyridine-2,3-dicarboxylic acid is synthesized from the ozonolysis product of quinoline and 8-nitroquinoline as shown in Scheme 1. Recycling of the liquid stream enhances the overall conversion by increasing the residence time under high ozone concentration. Kinetic analysis determines the rate constants for ozonolysis of three substrates, quinoline, 8-nitroquinoline, and 6-methoxyquinoline. Experimental conversions show good agreement (within one standard deviation) with conversions predicted by physical model simulations for varying concentrations of the substrates and ozone. To our knowledge, this contribution represents the first combined experimental and modelling study of the ozonolysis of quinolines in a recycle flow system.
![]() | ||
| Fig. 1 System configuration (a) for through flow ozonolysis and (b) for ozonolysis with recycling of the liquid reaction stream. | ||
:
1 molar ratio. Unit mass flow controllers (UFC series) measured the flow rates of oxygen and nitrogen. An ozone monitor (Teledyne Instruments Inc., Model 454) determined the concentration of ozone in wt%. The maximum concentration was 15–15.5 wt% under these conditions. Two ozone destruction units connected to the reactor and to the ozone monitor removed any unreacted ozone. The solution was prepared to a concentration of 0.075 M (quinoline and 8-nitroquinoline) or 0.225 M (6-methoxyquinoline) in acetic acid and DI water with a volumetric ratio of 86
:
14. Two equiv. of sulfuric acid were mixed with the substrates to reduce the electron density in the pyridine ring.25 The liquid flow rates were 0.05 ml min−1 for quinoline and 8-nitroquinoline and 0.1 ml min−1 for 6-methoxyquinoline. The gas flow rates were 4 ml min−1 for all substrates.
:
DI water = 86
:
14 vol%) with an internal standard (0.1 M 1,1′-biphenyl in methanol) flowed with a rate of 0.05 ml min−1 or 0.1 ml min−1 while nitrogen was flowing at 4 ml min−1. The sample loop was filled with tracer solution, 0.075 M quinoline in the solvent mixture (acetic acid
:
DI water = 86
:
14 vol%), and injected into the reactor 1 h after the start of the solvent flow. Then, samples were collected every 1 min and analyzed by HPLC to obtain the ratio of the peak area of quinoline to 1,1′-biphenyl. To exclude any effect not from the reactor, a bypass experiment was performed by directly connecting the six-way valve with the tube connected to the outlet of the reactor. The RTDs from the whole system and bypass experiments were deconvoluted via the fast Fourier transform (FFT) and inverse fast Fourier transform (iFFT) functions of MATLAB.26 From there, the mean residence time of the liquid (τL), Péclet number (Pe), and liquid hold-up (ϕ) were calculated as shown in Table S1 (see the ESI†).
:
1 volume ratio) and water with 0.2 vol% of phosphoric acid (85 wt% in water) were used. The calibration curves were obtained from HPLC peak areas at a wavelength of 230 nm for quinoline and 6-methoxyquinoline. Wavelengths of 255 nm and 275 nm were used for 8-nitroquinoline and pyridine-2,3-dicarboxylic acid, respectively. All ozonolysis products were collected after running the reaction for 1 h assuming a steady state, and then analyzed by HPLC to obtain the conversion of quinolines. The yield was calculated from the concentration of pyridine-2,3-dicarboxylic acid measured after oxidative work-up (see S2†).
| Entry | Temperature (°C) | Conversion (%) | Yield (%) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ozonolysis | Work-up | |||
| 1 | 10 | NA | 68.2 | NA |
| 2 | 40 | NA | 74.1 | NA |
| 3 | 20 | 45 | 75.6 ± 1.6 | 49.6 ± 3.0 |
| 4 | 70 | 72.7 ± 2.8 | ||
The variation of the work-up yield with reaction time was investigated for 5 to 60 min (see the ESI†). After ozonolysis at 20 °C, aqueous hydrogen peroxide was added to the ozonolysis product mixture at a constant temperature of 70 °C and the reaction time was varied. Work-up for more than 10 min produced pyridine-2,3-dicarboxylic acid in a similar range of 72–73%, but the yield significantly decreased to 53.7 ± 4.2% with a reaction time of 5 min. Therefore, the oxidative work-up was completed in 10 min to give a yield of 72–73% and this time was used in further work-up.
The single-pass experiment from eight Corning LFRs converted 75.6 ± 1.6% of quinoline through ozonolysis. To overcome the limited reactor volume and increase the reaction time, we implemented a recycle system (Fig. 1b) in which the ozonolysis product mixture was separated by gravity from the gas and a portion of it was recycled back to the reactor inlet.27–29 In general, the recycle reactor performance depends on the recycle ratio (R), which is defined as the ratio of the recycle flow rate to the fresh feed flow rate. For example, after filling the recycle loop at a flow rate of 0.05 ml min−1, the recycle flow rate was decreased to 0.04 ml min−1 while the fresh feed rate decreased to 0.01 ml min−1, resulting in a recycle ratio of R = 4. Four recycle ratios were examined for the ozonolysis of quinoline by varying the recycle flow rate as 0.04, 0.03, 0.02, and 0.01 ml min−1 and the fresh feed flow rate as 0.01, 0.02, 0.03, and 0.04 ml min−1 (Table 2). When the recycle ratio increased from 0.25 to 4, the conversion went up to 95.2%.
| Entry | Fresh feed rate (ml min−1) | Recycle flow rate (ml min−1) | Recycle ratio (R) | Conversion (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0.01 | 0.04 | 4 | 95.2 |
| 2 | 0.02 | 0.03 | 1.5 | 90.1 |
| 3 | 0.03 | 0.02 | 0.67 | 82.9 |
| 4 | 0.04 | 0.01 | 0.25 | 77.0 |
As a quinoline derivative, the ozonolysis of 8-nitroquinoline was carried out for single-pass and recycle experiments. With an electron-withdrawing nitro group, 8-nitroquinoline was expected to show lower conversion and yield than quinoline.30 Under identical experimental conditions for the gas and liquid flow rates (Ql = 0.05 ml min−1 and Qg = 4 ml min−1) and initial concentration of 0.075 M, the conversion of 8-nitroquinoline was 52.4 ± 2.3% from the single-pass experiment. The ozonolysis and oxidative work-up of 8-nitroquinonline also lead to the formation of pyridine-2,3-dicarboxylic acid because the nitro group is unstable and easily replaced with the hydroxyl group in acid in the presence of water.31 After ozonolysis, oxidative work-up at 70 °C for 10 min with 1.2 equivalents of H2O2 yielded 24.7% of pyridine-2,3-dicarboxylic acid. Similar to quinoline, the overall conversion was increased to 76.9% with a recycle ratio of 4 in the recycle reactor (Table 3).
| Entry | Fresh feed rate (ml min−1) | Recycle flow rate (ml min−1) | Recycle ratio (R) | Conversion (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0.01 | 0.04 | 4 | 76.9 |
| 2 | 0.02 | 0.03 | 1.5 | 70.5 |
| 3 | 0.03 | 0.02 | 0.67 | 65.6 |
| 4 | 0.04 | 0.01 | 0.25 | 58.6 |
Assuming that ozonolysis reaction was first order with respect to ozone and quinoline, the rate constant was determined by means of least squares fitting with mass balance equations. The reaction order was assumed to be first order for each reactant, since the addition of one equivalent of ozone to quinoline proceeds very quickly while the second addition to form diozonide is considerably slow as studied by Lindenstruth et al.30 Only reactions in the liquid phase were considered because of the low vapor pressure of quinoline under experimental conditions. Dissolved ozone was replenished from the gas phase as the reaction proceeded throughout the reactor, and there were no changes in liquid hold-up, density, and linear velocity of each phase. Based on these assumptions, the mass balance equations were developed for each phase similar to an earlier study of a multi-phase system with a volatile tracer.32,33
Liquid phase:
![]() | (1a) |
![]() | (1b) |
Vapor phase:
![]() | (2) |
Here, k, U, C, ϕ, (ka)gl, and He represent the rate constant, linear velocity, concentration, liquid hold-up, overall mass transfer coefficient at the interface of liquid and gas, and dimensionless Henry's constant, respectively. For each term, subscripts l or g means liquid or gas phase, and o or q represents ozone or quinoline. The dimensionless Henry's constant for ozone,
, is fixed at 0.55 assuming that there is no effect of water on the constant in acetic acid as a solvent.34 The overall mass transfer coefficient, (ka)gl, was determined experimentally to be 0.02 s−1 by detecting the concentration of bicarbonate ions from the absorption of carbon dioxide in aqueous N-methyldiethanolamine (see the ESI†).35,36 This low mass transfer coefficient compared to the values determined earlier for the LFR by Nieves-Remacha et al.22 resulted from using low flow rates. Nevertheless, the Péclet numbers were sufficient to assume plug flow in the above model (see the ESI†).
Employing the physical parameters and experimental results including the residence time distribution and conversions in the mass balance equations, the rate constant was determined by minimizing the sum of squares difference between predicted conversions and observed conversions for the flow through experiments. Calculations were performed with the fmincon nonlinear optimization routine of MATLAB. Using the determined rate constant for quinoline, k = 0.150 ± 0.013 M−1 s−1 (one standard deviation), the conversions depending on the recycle ratio (R) were predicted for the recycle reactor and compared to the experimental data (Fig. 2a). The experimental data falls within one standard deviation of the predicted performance. The kinetic analysis of 8-nitroquinoline was performed under identical assumptions and physical parameters, and produced a rate constant of 0.068 ± 0.006 M−1 s−1. Again, the model predicts the observed performance of the recycle system within one standard deviation (Fig. 2b).
![]() | ||
| Fig. 2 Conversions of (a) quinoline and (b) 8-nitroquinoline depending on the recycle ratio (R) from experiments (black squares) and simulation with one standard deviation (red dotted lines). | ||
In order to verify the determined rate constants, the concentrations of ozone and quinoline or 8-nitroquinoline were varied for single-pass experiments, and the experimental results were compared with the simulation results (Fig. 3). Compared with the conversions obtained from simulations, the experimental results fall well within one standard deviation of the predicted performance results for quinoline (Fig. 3a and b) and 8-nitroquinoline (Fig. 3c and d).
Ozonolysis of 6-methoxyquinoline was also investigated as an example of a quinoline with an electron donating group. Since the reaction rate was expected to increase relative to quinoline, different experimental conditions were considered. The concentration of 6-methoxyquinoline was 0.225 M and the liquid flow rate was increased to 0.1 ml min−1 in one Corning LFR plate. Under these conditions, the conversion from single-pass experiments was 45.2%, and increased to 73.5% with a recycle ratio of 4 (Table 4).
| Entry | Fresh feed rate (ml min−1) | Recycle flow rate (ml min−1) | Recycle ratio (R) | Conversion (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0.01 | 0.04 | 4 | 73.5 |
| 2 | 0.02 | 0.03 | 1.5 | 62.6 |
| 3 | 0.03 | 0.02 | 0.67 | 54.8 |
| 4 | 0.04 | 0.01 | 0.25 | 47.5 |
Since the flow rate and reactor volume were changed, the RTD was measured again in one Corning LFR plate and the mean residence time was calculated from the deconvolution between the total reactor and the bypass experiments (see Fig. S1†). Also, the overall mass transfer coefficient for the flowrates of Ql = 0.1 ml min−1 and Qg = 4 ml min−1 was determined experimentally to be 0.074 s−1 because of the increased liquid flow rate. The determined rate constant from the kinetic analysis for 6-methoxyquinoline was k = 8.84 × 104 M−1 s−1. This value is several orders of magnitude larger than that for quinoline or 8-nitroquinoline, presumably because the electron donating methoxy group increases the electron density in the electron deficient quinoline ring promoting electrophilic addition of ozone.37 Similarly, anisole has a much higher rate constant (290 ± 50 M−1 s−1) than benzene (2 ± 0.4 M−1 s−1) or nitrobenzene (0.09 ± 0.02 M−1 s−1).38 The predicted performance of the recycle system again compares well with experimental data for varying recycle ratios as well as ozone and 6-methoxyquinoline concentrations (Fig. 4).
Footnote |
| † Electronic supplementary information (ESI) available. See DOI: 10.1039/c7re00084g |
| This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2017 |