Tetraacetylethylenediamine

UsesTetraacetylethylenediamine (TAED) is a bleaching activator which is mainly used in detergents and additives for laundry washing and dishwashing. Typical concentrations of TAED range between 1.4% and 13% in these products. A small amount of the produced TAED is also used in bleaching of paper, textiles and for the generation of Peracetic acid. Peroxide bleach activator for household detergents, paper pulp.

UsesN,N,N',N'-Tetraacetylethylenediamine is used as a peroxide bleach activator in household detergents and for paper pulp. It also serves as an important component of laundry detergents and bleaches, where it is used as an activator for active oxygen bleaching agents such as sodium perborate, sodium percarbonate, sodium perphosphate and sodium persulfate. It reacts with the perhydroxyl anion HO2- in the presence of aqueous alkaline solution to prepare triacetylethylenediamine and diacetylethylenediamine with the release of peracetic acid, which is a fast acting bleaching agent.

PreparationTetraacetylethylenediamine (TAED) is produced in a two stage process from ethylenediamine (ED) and acetic anhydride (Ac2O). ED is first diacetylated to DAED. In the second step DAED is subsequently converted with Ac2O via TriAED into TAED (Clariant, 1999). TAED is crystallized out of the reaction mixture, filtered, washed and dried, and if necessary also granulated. The raw materials used occur almost quantitatively in the product. Byproducts are not formed. TAED was prepared by acetylation of diacetylethylenediamine (DAED) with acetic anhydride in a 5 L reactor coupled with a packed distillation column, 2.5 cm in inside diameter and 1 m in length. The reaction temperature was set at 135 °C and the reflux ratio at 6. The molar ratio of acetic anhydride to DAED was varied from 3 to 5. A TAED yield as high as 80% was obtained, higher by 15% than in the absence of distillation.