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US 4,233,460 AGranted
Alkoxyalkanoic acid preparation
AssigneeShell Oil Company
InventorsCarl L. Willis, Lynn H. Slaugh
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An extremely mild, oxidative process for converting alkoxyalkanols to the corresponding acids is disclosed which comprises reacting the alcohol with an alkali metal hydroxide and tert-butyl hydroperoxide in the presence of a catalytic amount of palladium.
Claims3
A process for preparing an alkoxyalkanoic acid of the formula:
- RO(CH.sub.2 CHR'O).sub.n CH.sub.2 CO.sub.2 H
- wherein R is an alkyl group of 1 to about 22 carbon atoms, R' is hydrogen or methyl or a mixture thereof (on the individual molecule) and n is an integer of from 1 to about 12 by reacting the corresponding alkoxyalkanol with tertiary butyl hydroperoxide and an alkali metal hydroxide in the liquid phase at a temperature of about 20.degree. to about 100.degree. C. in the presence of a catalytically effective amount of palladium metal while maintaining during the reaction an excess of the alkali metal hydroxide.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.