Abstract
MUCH work has been done on the liquid-phase oxidation of hydrocarbons; but strangely enough very few experiments of a fundamental nature have included what would appear to be the simplest models, namely, straight-chain paraffins. Any suggestions made so far concerning the point of oxygen attack when there is no preferred tertiary or activated hydrogen atom have been largely speculative. Ivanov et al.1 claim, on the basis of certain products isolated from the oxidation of n-heptane, that attack takes place predominantly at the 2-position. Asinger2 found that in the chlorination of dodecane and cetane attack was equal on all methylene groups, and suggested that the same would hold for oxidation.
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Ivanov, K. I., Savinova, V. K., and Zhakhovskaya, V. P., Doklady Akad. Nauk. S.S.S.R., 72, 903 (1950).
Asinger, F., Ber., 75 B, 668 (1942).
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BENTON, J., WIRTH, M. Position of Radical Attack during Oxidation of Long-Chain Paraffins. Nature 171, 269 (1953). https://doi.org/10.1038/171269a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/171269a0
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