acrolein
Sign in to saveAcrolein (systematic name: propenal) is the simplest unsaturated aldehyde. It is a colorless liquid with a foul and acrid aroma. The smell of burnt fat (as when cooking oil is heated to its smoke point) is caused by glycerol in the burning fat breaking down into acrolein. It is produced industrially from propene and mainly used as a biocide and a building block to other chemical compounds, such as the amino acid methionine.
Article
14 sectionsContents
- History
- Production
- Niche or laboratory methods
- Reactions
- Uses
- Military uses
- Biocide
- Chemical precursor
- Health risks
- Cigarette smoke
- Chemotherapy metabolite
- Endogenous production
- Analytical methods
- References
Acrolein (systematic name: propenal) is the simplest unsaturated aldehyde. It is a colorless liquid with a foul and acrid aroma. The smell of burnt fat (as when cooking oil is heated to its smoke point) is caused by glycerol in the burning fat breaking down into acrolein. It is produced industrially from propene and mainly used as a biocide and a building block to other chemical compounds, such as the amino acid methionine.
==History== Acrolein was first named and characterized as an aldehyde by the Swedish chemist Jöns Jacob Berzelius in 1839. He had been working with it as a thermal degradation product of glycerol, a material used in the manufacture of soap. The name is a contraction of 'acrid' (referring to its pungent smell) and 'oleum' (referring to its oil-like consistency). In the 20th century, acrolein became an important intermediate for the industrial production of acrylic acid and acrylic plastics.