Organocatalyzed Beckmann Rearrangement of Cyclohexanone Oxime by
Trifluoroacetic Anhydride in Microreactors
Abstract
The kinetics of the Beckmann rearrangement of cyclohexanone oxime (CHO)
catalyzed by trifluoroacetic anhydride (TFAA) and trifluoroacetic acid
(TFA) is proposed in this work. The effects of experimental parameters
on the reaction rate are studied in microreactors, including CHO
concentration, TFAA concentration, temperature, and caprolactam (CPL)
concentration. The reaction is verified as first-order and the reaction
rate shows a linear relationship with TFAA concentration and decreases
with the increasing of CPL concentration. The in-situ FTIR is adopted to
study the reaction mechanism and quantitative equilibrium relationship
of CPL with TFAA. Based on the experimental results, a reaction
mechanism is proposed and a kinetics model is established, which is in
good agreement with the experimental data. The TFAA/TFA catalytic system
allows high conversion and reaction rate compared with other organic
acids.