Classifications

• • C—CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
  • C07—ORGANIC CHEMISTRY
  • C07C—ACYCLIC OR CARBOCYCLIC COMPOUNDS
  • C07C41/00—Preparation of ethers; Preparation of compounds having groups, groups or groups
  • C07C41/01—Preparation of ethers
  • C07C41/18—Preparation of ethers by reactions not forming ether-oxygen bonds
  • C07C41/24—Preparation of ethers by reactions not forming ether-oxygen bonds by elimination of halogens, e.g. elimination of HCl
• • C—CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
  • C07—ORGANIC CHEMISTRY
  • C07C—ACYCLIC OR CARBOCYCLIC COMPOUNDS
  • C07C41/00—Preparation of ethers; Preparation of compounds having groups, groups or groups
  • C07C41/01—Preparation of ethers
  • C07C41/18—Preparation of ethers by reactions not forming ether-oxygen bonds
• • C—CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
  • C07—ORGANIC CHEMISTRY
  • C07C—ACYCLIC OR CARBOCYCLIC COMPOUNDS
  • C07C41/00—Preparation of ethers; Preparation of compounds having groups, groups or groups
  • C07C41/48—Preparation of compounds having groups
• • C—CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
  • C07—ORGANIC CHEMISTRY
  • C07C—ACYCLIC OR CARBOCYCLIC COMPOUNDS
  • C07C67/00—Preparation of carboxylic acid esters
  • C07C67/30—Preparation of carboxylic acid esters by modifying the acid moiety of the ester, such modification not being an introduction of an ester group
  • C07C67/307—Preparation of carboxylic acid esters by modifying the acid moiety of the ester, such modification not being an introduction of an ester group by introduction of halogen; by substitution of halogen atoms by other halogen atoms
• • C—CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
  • C07—ORGANIC CHEMISTRY
  • C07C—ACYCLIC OR CARBOCYCLIC COMPOUNDS
  • C07C2601/00—Systems containing only non-condensed rings
  • C07C2601/12—Systems containing only non-condensed rings with a six-membered ring
  • C07C2601/14—The ring being saturated

Definitions

• the present invention relates to perfluorinated vinyl ethers and to the preparation thereof. These monomers are valuable comonomers for fluoroelastomers with enhanced low temperature properties.
• perfluoro(alkyl vinyl ethers) by fluorination with elemental fluorine is known. See Hung et al, U.S. Patent 5,350,497. This patent discloses the fluorination of selected partially fluorinated (di)chloroethyl ethers (followed by dehalogenation to the corresponding perfluoro(alkyl vinyl ether).
• Perfluorinated long chain perfluoroethers are difficult to prepare, especially those vinyl ethers without branching and more than 3 atoms in the alkyl group.
• perfluorovinyl ethers are commonly prepared by two routes. See, for example, Modern Fluoropolymers, J. Scheirs, Wiley 1997 pp 376-378.
• Rf groups containing such oxygen atoms are referred to as perfluoroalkyleneoxy groups R preferably contains from 1-20, more preferably from 1 to
• carbon atoms in the backbone Rf may also contain sites of terminal unsaturation
• the vinyl ethers are preferably free of chlorine atoms
• the process of the invention comprises the steps of (a) providing a hydrocarbon precursor comprising at least one 2-alkoxypropionate moiety, derivative, or equivalent that may be partially halogenated,
• perfluorinated means that all of the carbon bonded hydrogen atoms have been replaced with fluorine and any unsaturated carbon-carbon bonds have been saturated with fluorine
• an appropriate hydrocarbon (e.g., containing at least one 2-alkoxy propionate moiety, derivative or equivalent) precursor is provided which includes a hydrocarbon acid derivative
• a hydrocarbon acid derivative Such derivatives include, for example, acid fluorides, anhydrides, esters and the like
• This derivative is then perfluorinated to provide a corresponding perfluorinated acid derivative intermediate
• the intermediate is then converted to its corresponding perfluorinated acid metal salt and subsequently converted to the desired perfluorovinyl ether.
• a partially fluorinated hydrocarbon precursor is provided by reacting hexafluoropropylene oxide with an alcohol or a species such as sodium alkoxide.
• the precursor is then fully fluorinated by replacing any remaining carbon bonded hydrogen atoms with fluorine atoms to provide a perfluorinated acid derivative intermediate.
• the intermediate is then converted to its corresponding perfluorinated metal salt and subsequently converted to the desired perfluorovinyl ether
• a partially fluorinated hydrocarbon precursor is provided by reacting a fluorinated olefin with an alcohol, 2) fully fluorinating the precursor, 3) hydrolyzing the fluorinated precursor to an acid derivative, 4) converting the acid derivative to its corresponding perfluorinated acid metal salt, 5) converting the salt product to its corresponding perfluorovinyl ether
• perfluorinated vinyl ethers prepared according to the present invention are useful in the preparation of fluoroelastomers, especially those that are used at low temperatures.
• fluoroelastomers are known. See, for example, Uschold et al., U.S. Patent
• Fluorination of the precursors may be accomplished by either electrochemical fluorination (ECF) or direct fluorination (DF).
• ECF electrochemical fluorination
• DF direct fluorination
• Conversion of the perfluorinated precursor to the metal salt is preferably accomplished by treatment with a base, e.g. saponification
• Conversion of the perfluorinated metal salt to the vinyl ether is preferably accomplished by pyrolysis. Typically this is done by drying the salt and then heating the salt to a temperature of from 170° C to 250° C with or without the presence of a solvent or other medium.
• the perfluorovinyl ether may be prepared by
• the first embodiment may be exemplified by the following synthesis sequence:
• Rj is a C ⁇ -C 2 o alkyl or aromatic group, which may be linear, branched, cyclic and which may contain additional ether linkages.
• the X h moiety is selected from the group consisting of Rh, lower alkoxy, (such as -OCH 3 , -OCH CH 3 ), OC(O)CH(CH 3 )OR h , -F and -Cl.
• Rf is a perfluorinated version of Rh and Xf is a perfluorinated version of Xh.
• a precursor may be represented as R' h (OCH(CH 3 )C(O) Xh ) 2 where R'h is described in a similar manner to R above except it is divalent.
• the Rh moieties in this particular precursor may be the same or different.
• the pendant methyl group of the -CH(CH 3 )COO- moiety may contain a chlorine atom. This chlorine atom will survive the fluorination step and may provide some reactive advantage in subsequent steps.
• An alternate approach to the hydrocarbon precursor for this embodiment involves esters of 2-alkoxy- 1-propanol.
• This precursor has the configuration of the ester moiety reversed when compared to the first reaction sequence listed, but is functionally equivalent to a 2-alkoxypropionate in the process of this invention.
• the precursor is then perfluorinated as described above.
• the resulting species then is dissociated to produce the perfluoro-2- alkoxy propionyl fluoride. From this point the conversion to the vinyl ether proceeds as in the first reaction sequence by converting the propionyl fluoride to the corresponding perfluorinated metal salt and pyrolyzing the salt to the corresponding perfluorovinyl ether.
• An additional precursor which may be used in this route includes R 3 OCH(CH 2 Cl)CH 2 OAc where R 3 is an alkyl group which may contain additional ether linkages and O
• the alkyl being a Ci-C ⁇ alkyl group.
• the alkyl is a Ci alkyl group that may be fluorinated. The chlorine on the pendent methyl group will also survive the fluorination process.
• hydrocarbon containing precursors are either commercially available or are easily prepared by common organic synthesis.
• Corresponding long chain polyether alcohols may be coupled with 2-chloropropionic acid to achieve the desired precursors, but any other method is also useful.
• ester precursors for fluorination examples include
• ECF electrochemical fluorination
• Some partially fluorinated precursors such as 2,3,3,3-tetrafluoroprop ⁇ on ⁇ c derivatives of the second embodiment give little rearrangement and less cleavage in ECF than the unfluorinated precuisors
• the resulting perfluorinated esters, anhydrides or acid fluoride end groups may be converted to the corresponding hydrocarbon methyl esters with methanol if a separation step (e g distillation) is desired to purify the reaction product This is typically done to separate the perfluorinated compounds from the reaction media Either the separated product or the perfluorinated products in the reaction mixture are then saponified with bases, i e converted to a salt, (e g KOH, Na 2 CO , NaOH) to give the resulting salts The salts are then dried and pyrolyzed at temperatures from 170°C to 250°C with or without solvent to give the corresponding perfluorovinyl ether The resulting perfluorovinyl ether is preferably purified by distillation to obtain the desired purity
• a separation step e g distillation
• a partially fluorinated hydrocarbon precursor is used This precursor is prepared by reacting hexafluoropropylene oxide with an alcohol (such as is described in D Sianesi et al , J Org Chem , Vol 3 (1966), p 2312)
• This process comprises the steps of
• R -O-CF CF 2 , wherein R f and Rj, are as described above
• a perfluorinated vinyl ether may be prepared by a process comprising the steps of
• R'V F or Rf when n is 0, and R'V is R f when n is 1, and R' is an Cl to C6 alkyl.
• Preferred olefins for the addition to the hydrocarbon ester are tetrafluoroethylene, hexafluoropropene, perfluoro(alkyl vinyl) ethers, such as perfluoro(methyl vinyl) ether, perfluoro(propyl vinyl) ether or other perfluoro vinyl ethers as described herein
• the preferred bases to catalyze the addition are alkali hydroxides KOH, NaOH, or NaOMe Solvents for the reaction include N,N-dialkyl carboxylic acid amides, such as those disclosed in U.S. Patent No 4,433,180 (von Werner)
• the 2-alkoxy propionate moiety is supplied by the hydrocarbon ester in this embodiment
• the resulting partially fluorinated precursors are fluorinated to provide a perfluorinated acid derivative intermediate This step may be accomplished by either ECF or DF as discussed above
• the solvents for the direct fluorination embodiments are perfluorinated compounds and/or fluorochloro compounds, e g perfluoromethylmorpholine, Freon-113, etc.
• perfluorinated vinyl ethers made according to one or more of the methods described above include
• Methyl 2-(methoxyethoxy) propionate was prepared by the alkylation of methoxyethanol (1500g, 19.7m) with 2-chloropropionic acid (1050g, 9.7m), using NaOH (790g, 19.7m) and tetrabutylammonium bromide (40g, 0.12m) in 1.2 liters of THF. After removal of the excess starting alcohol, methanol (965g, 30m) and HC1 (382g, 10.5m) were added. Distillation gave the desired ester (832g, 5.1m, 53% yield) b.p. 100-120°C/15mm identified by H-nmr.
• the ester was fluorinated in perfluoro-N-methylmorpholine (PMM) as described in U.S. Patent 5,488,142. After fluorination, methanol (850g, 26.6m) was added and distillation gave methyl perfluoro 2-(methoxyethoxy) propionate (1334g, 3.7m, 56% yield) b. p. 111-115°C, identified by 19 F NMR.
• PMM perfluoro-N-methylmorpholine
• the fluorinated ester (500g, 1.39m) was reacted with KOH (93g, 1.4m) dissolved in 400g of methanol to give the corresponding salt
• the salt was stripped of methanol and water at 90°C/15mm after the addition of 21g K 2 CO 3 and lOOOg of FluorinertTM FC71 (from 3M Co.). Vacuum was broken and the salt decarboxylated at 180-220°C.
• Perfluoro (methoxyethyl) vinyl ether was distilled (299g,
• Table 1 lists perfluorovinyl ethers prepared in a manner similar to Example 1 using the listed starting material. The boiling points (bp) listed were measured at atmospheric pressure. TABLE 1
• Table 2 lists vinyl ethers produced in a manner similar to Example 4, but using the listed starting alcohol Boiling points were measured at atmospheric pressure
• CF 3 O(CH ) 3 OH was converted to
• CH OCH(CH )C 2 H OH was converted to
• Example 14 Perfluoro methyl vinyl ether from 2-mefhoxy-l -propyl acetate NaH (60%) in mineral oil, 8.0g, 0.2 mol) was washed with hexane, slurried in THF, and treated dropwise with 26.4g (0.2 mol) l-t-butoxy-2-propanol (Aldrich Chemical) with ice cooling. The mixture was stirred at reflux one hr, chilled in ice, and treated with 19 ml (0.2 mol) dimethyl sulfate. After heating at reflux for 3 hr, the mixture was filtered, concentrated, and distilled to a head temperature of 85°C.
• Example 15 Perfluoro methyl vinyl ether from methyl 2-methoxypropionate Methyl 2-methoxypropionate (520.3g) was fluorinated in an ECF cell as described in U.S.
• Patent 2,713,593 equipped with -40°C and -80°C condensers.
• the yield of CF 3 OCF(CF 3 )COF was estimated as 17%.
• Ethyl 2-ethoxymethoxypropionate was made by stirring and heating a mixture of 1007g (8.5 mol) ethyl lactate, 2500 ml (20.2 mol) diethoxymethane (DEM), and 5.0g toluenesulfonic acid hydrate under nitrogen while distilling off a mixture of ethanol and DEM. Fresh DEM was periodically added. After 12 hr, the mixture was cooled, washed with very dilute NaOH, and the product distilled tol232g (7.5 mol, 88%) bp 90°C/20 mm. This ester was direct fluorinated as described in U.S.
• Patent 5,488, 142 and the product treated with methanol to give C 2 F 5 OCF 2 OCF(CF 3 )COOMe bp 107-112°C in 30% yield.
• a crude sample (2342g, 57% assay, remainder PMM and CF 3 COOMe) was added to a stirred solution of 300g NaOH in 800g water at about 30°C. After stirring 18 hr, the mixture was treated with 1 liter 50% sulfuric acid and the lower phase distilled to 718g bp 60°C/1 mm as the carboxylic acid.
• Hexafluoropropylene oxide 300g was added to 50g of 25%> sodium methoxide in methanol plus 450g methanol at room temperature in a modification of the procedure of (J Org. Chem 31, 2312 (1960) to give CH 3 OCF(CF 3 )COOMe bp 110-118°C This was direct fluorinated according to U S Patent 5,488,142 and the product was methanolysed to give the same ester as in Example 11 One could then convert this to the perfluorovinyl ether as described above
• Example 19 Perfluoro methyl vinyl ether CH 3 OCF(CF 3 )COOMe from Example 15 was fluorinated in an ECF cell according to U S
• Patent 2,713,593 to give in 21% yield CF 3 OCF(CF 3 )COF
• Hexafluoropropylene (36g) was added to 20.8g methyl lactate and about 0.2g KF in 50 ml DMF at 20-30°C. Distillation yielded a mixture of esters bp 64-76°C/ 55mm. This was fluorinated in an ECF cell according to U.S. Patent 2,713,593 to give in about 25% yield a 2:1 mixture of C 3 F 7 OCF(CF 3 )COF and C 3 F 7 OC 2 F 4 COF. One could then convert these to the corresponding perfluorovinyl ethers as described above.

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• 1999
  • 1999-12-22 US US09/470,497 patent/US6255536B1/en not_active Expired - Lifetime
• 2000
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