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Evaluation of acidity of strong acid catalysts. 2. The strength of boron trifluoride-water systems
The method of determining a thermodynamic acidity function from the chemical shift changes of {sup 13}C signals of unsaturated ketones at infinite dilution in the investigated acid established by the authors was applied to the system boron trifluoride-water (III) ranging from the monohydrate (BF{sub...
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Published in: | Journal of catalysis 1992-03, Vol.134:1 |
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Main Authors: | , |
Format: | Article |
Language: | English |
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | Get full text |
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Summary: | The method of determining a thermodynamic acidity function from the chemical shift changes of {sup 13}C signals of unsaturated ketones at infinite dilution in the investigated acid established by the authors was applied to the system boron trifluoride-water (III) ranging from the monohydrate (BF{sub 3} {center dot} H{sub 2}O) to the trihydrate (BF{sub 3} {center dot} 3H{sub 2}O). The indicators used were mesityl oxide and 4-hexen-3-one. It was found that III is significantly stronger than indicated by earlier measurements conducted by the classical Hammett method based on UV-visible spectroscopy. The mixtures with about 1.25 mol of water per mol of BF{sub 3} or less are stronger than pure sulfuric acid and are therefore superacidic. The stronger acidity of III can be understood because boron trifluoride is a much stronger Lewis acid than sulfur trioxide: therefore the complex with a hydroxyl anion of the former (hydroxytrifluoroborate anion) should have a lower affinity for a hydron than the corresponding complex of sulfuric anhydride (bisulfate anion). Preliminary experiments indicate that the {sup 13}C NMR method can be applied successfully to working catalysts based on III, which are colored and contain dissolved organic materials. |
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ISSN: | 0021-9517 1090-2694 |