Ethenolysis
Sign in to saveIn organic chemistry, ethenolysis is a chemical process in which internal olefins are degraded using ethylene () as the reagent. The reaction is an example of cross metathesis. The utility of the reaction is driven by the low cost of ethylene as a reagent and its selectivity. It produces compounds with terminal alkene functional groups (α-olefins), which are more amenable to other reactions such as polymerization and hydroformylation.
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Encyclopedic overview
6 sectionsContents
- Applications
- Terminal alkenes
- Perfume
- Decenoic acid
- Polyethylene and polypropylene recycling
- References
In organic chemistry, ethenolysis is a chemical process in which internal olefins are degraded using ethylene () as the reagent. The reaction is an example of cross metathesis. The utility of the reaction is driven by the low cost of ethylene as a reagent and its selectivity. It produces compounds with terminal alkene functional groups (α-olefins), which are more amenable to other reactions such as polymerization and hydroformylation.
The general reaction equation is: \ce{A=B} + {\color{red}\ce{CH2=CH2}} \longrightarrow \ce{A=}{\color{red}\ce{CH2}} + \ce{B=}{\color{red}\ce{CH2}}
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Ethenolysis” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.