Book review: Aqueous Organometallic Chemistry and Catalysis; I. T. Horváth and F. Joó (eds); Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, 1995; 317 pages. £117; ISBN 0–7923–3703–4
✍ Scribed by A. W. Parkins
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1997
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 14 KB
- Volume
- 11
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0268-2605
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
About 90% by weight of the organic chemicals used worldwide come from petroleum and natural gas and Chapter 2 explains how the seven chemicals on which the industry is based-ethylene, propylene, the C 4 olefins, benzene, toluene, the xylenes and methane-are derived from these sources. The importance of the technocommercial interface between petroleum refining and the petrochemical industry is emphasized in this chapter. Separate chapters then describe how a wide range of chemicals and polymers are manufactured from each of these seven basic chemicals, with two additional chapters covering products derived from C 5 olefins and alkanes (other than methane) respectively. The chemistry involved is described in a way which points out significant aspects of the technology involved and sufficient numerical data, e.g. product prices, production volumes and changes of these with time, given to indicate the commercial importance of the major products. After dealing with the major products, for example the polyethylenes, most chapters contain sections dealing with 'lesser-volume' products, e.g. ethylene oxide derivatives in the chapter concerned with ethylene.
The 10% of organic chemicals and polymers not derived from petroleum or natural gas are covered in three chapters. The first deals with chemicals from coal, which although important to the development of the industry is now relegated mainly to production of a limited range of aromatic and heterocyclic chemicals (including naphthalene) from coke oven distillate. The industrial chemistry of fats and oils, concerned mainly with surfactants, is covered in the next chapter, while the third chapter in this group deals with a wide range of special products based on carbohydrates, including starch and cellulose.
Polymer production consumes about half the total volume of organic chemicals produced, so the penultimate chapter, 'How polymers are made', is concerned entirely with these materials. It indicates the application areas of polymers, e.g. plastics, fibres and elastomers, and lists the more important polymers in these areas, giving the volumes produced in the USA in 1993. Basic polymerization chemistry is reviewed, starting with step-growth polycondensations and proceeding through the more important chain-growth polymerization mechanisms; it also gives some examples of step-growth polymerizations leading to cross-linked products such as epoxy resins. This chapter also provides a brief review of the physical properties of polymers on which their usefulness depends. The last chapter is concerned with 'Industrial catalysis' and provides a brief but wide-ranging review of this very important area. This book will provide a useful review of the field for both students and graduates with some knowledge of organic chemistry. The references to each chapter are given mainly in the form of annotated bibliographies which provide introductions to the relevant literature. Thus, this book can also be used as a source reference to searchers looking for detailed information about particular areas in this wide general field.