4-Pentenoic Acid Conversion

The present invention is directed to the preparation of a gamma-chloromethyl-gamma-butyrolactone which is useful as a solvent, for example, for acetylene, epoxy resins, and polyvinyl chloride copolymers and other resins. Previous methods of making lactones in general have been by conversion of gamma-hydroxy acids to gamma-lactones as follows: ##STR1## See, for example, Cason, Principles of Modern Organic Chemistry, Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1966. Morrison and Boyd, Organic Chemistry, 2nd Ed., Allyn and Bacon, Inc., Boston, 1970, give the reaction as follows for the salt of a gamma-hydroxy acid: ##STR2##

Commercially gamma-butyrolactone is made from 1,4-butanediol by oxidative cyclization. However, the diol is believed to first be converted to the hydroxy acid before the cyclization occurs so that the cyclization would be as given in the above equations.

A synthesis of the analogous iodolactone was reported by E. E. Van Tamelen et al, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 76, 2315 (1953). The lactone was made from 4-pentenoic acid and a stoichiometric amount of iodine.

According to the present invention a method is provided for preparing a gamma-chloromethyl-gamma-butyrolactone which comprises contacting 4-pentenoic acid with oxygen and a catalyst comprising a noble metal halide, a variable valence transition metal halide and an alkali metal halide at a temperature between 50.degree. and 200.degree. C and superatmospheric pressure. The oxygen may be supplied for the reaction in the form of air.

Preferred operating conditions for the method of the present invention are as follows:

The term "noble metal catalyst" is used herein to mean ruthenium, rhodium, palladium, osmium, iridium and platinum. Palladium and platinum are particularly preferred noble metal catalysts for the present preparation method.

The term "variable valence transition metals" is used herein to mean those transition elements which can change their valence state by oxidation reduction. More specifically, transition metals which can be oxidized to their higher oxidation state by air or oxygen. Preferred transition metal catalysts are copper and iron. Particularly preferred as to the transition metal catalysts is copper.

The term "alkali metal" is used herein to mean Group IA metals. Of these metals lithium, sodium, and potassium are preferred and lithium is especially preferred.

The reaction equation for the method of the present invention may be given as follows:

A glass pressure reactor was charged with:

The reactor was provided with a magnetic stirrer and was connected to an oxygen reservoir through a pressure regulator. The reactor was heated to 100.degree. C and the pressure adjusted to 100 psig. The reaction was continued at constant pressure for 1 hour. The reactor was cooled, depressurized and the products analyzed by gas chromatography. The analysis showed 100% conversion of 4-pentenoic acid and a 67% yield of product gamma-chloromethyl-gamma-butyrolactone.

The following analyses identified the product as gamma-chloromethyl-gamma-butyrolactone:

Infrared (IR) peaks at

1770 cm.sup.-.sup.1, C=O bond

1180 cm.sup.-.sup.1, C--O bond

743 cm.sup.-.sup.1, C--Cl bond

Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR)

proton signals at 2.53 ppm, (m), 4H

proton signals at 3.76 ppm, (d), 2H

proton signals at 4.80 ppm, (m), 1H

Mass Spectroscopy (MS)

Molecular weight = 134

Elemental Analysis by weight

Table I below shows several further runs carried out under the conditions as summarized in the table.

As shown in the table, a surprisingly high yield of 90.7 mol percent of the desired product was obtained in run number -07 using the platinum catalyst and wherein the transition metal component of the catalyst was a halide. In run member -17, which also used a platinum catalyst, copper acetate was used instead of copper chloride, and an essentially nil yield of product gamma-chloromethyl-gamma-butyrolactone was obtained.