Junk_Enginerd - 6-6-2020 at 04:44
No application or goal in mind, I read about alkane reactions and learned that they almost only can be reacted with oxygen i.e. burned, with one
notable exception being free radical halogenation.
If one were to perform a chlorine free radical halogenation of typical diesel fuel, what could one expect as the main products? I have made chloroform
through halogenation and it was an interesting experiment, so I'm curious about doing it with diesel or perhaps gasoline.
Texium - 6-6-2020 at 04:56
Considering diesel fuel consists of a terrible mess of alkanes mixed with a considerable amount of aromatics, you’re going to get a terrible mess of
chlorinated crap.
There’s no good way to control the extent of halogenation in these free radical reactions. The alkanes will get chlorinated to varying degrees with
many possible combinations, and the aromatics will lead to some lachrymators such as benzyl/tolyl/xylyl chlorides being formed from side chain
chlorination.
Overall it’s very nasty. Essentially what you would end up with is a bunch of very toxic waste. I wouldn’t recommend it.
unionised - 6-6-2020 at 04:59
It's interesting, but I wouldn't try it.
Diesel is a complex mixture of hydrocarbons.
And each of those components could be chlorinated at several possible locations.
The number of possible chlorination products is astronomical.
It's likely that you would get a horribly complex mixture.
Also, many chlorinated hydrocarbons are more or less toxic.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chlorinated_paraffins#Safety
draculic acid69 - 6-6-2020 at 05:01
I don't think you'll get much of a well defined result. Allylbenzenes,naptha and alkanes 8-18carbons long probably won't chlorinate the same way you
made chloroform.
Junk_Enginerd - 7-6-2020 at 03:48
Well alright. I guess that's sort of what I expected, but doing the experiment "theoretically" with you guys still made me learn a few new things. I
have no intention of doing the experiment, especially now that I know that there's little to gain from it. Thanks for the replies!