Benzene → Ethylbenzene

Reaction equation

[CH3:1]CCCCC.C1C=CC=CC=1.[CH3:13][CH2:14][CH2:15][CH2:16][CH2:17][CH2:18][CH2:19][CH3:20]>[Pt].C1(C)C(C)=CC=CC=1.C1(C)C=CC=CC=1.CCCCCCC>[CH2:14]([C:15]1[CH:20]=[CH:19][CH:18]=[CH:17][CH:16]=1)[CH3:13].[CH3:1][CH:19]([CH2:18][CH2:17][CH2:16][CH2:15][CH3:14])[CH3:20]

Participants

Procedure

At very high hexane conversions (99%), benzene was formed in over 94% yield. Similarly, n-heptane yielded 96% toluene. Similarly, n-heptane yielded 96% toluene. Consistent with the non-acidic nature of this platinum catalyst, n-octane yielded predominantly ethylbenzene and ortho-xylene, 2-methylheptane produced mostly meta-xylene, and 3-methylheptane formed mainly ethylbenzene, para-, and ortho-xylene.