In chemistry, dehydrogenation is a chemical reaction that involves the removal of hydrogen, usually from an organic molecule. It is the reverse of hydrogenation. Dehydrogenation is important, both as a useful reaction and a serious problem. At its simplest, it is a useful way of converting , which are relatively inert and thus low-valued, to olefins, which are reactive and thus more valuable. Alkenes are precursors to aldehydes (), alcohols (), polymers, and aromatics.
that catalyze dehydrogenation are called dehydrogenases.
In metal manufacturing and repairs, dehydrogenation is a thermal treatment which consists in removing the hydrogen absorbed by an object during an electrochemical or chemical process, performed in a specific oven at a temperature of for a minimum time of 2 hours.
Heterogeneous catalytic routes
Styrene
Dehydrogenation processes are used extensively to produce aromatics in the petrochemical industry. Such processes are highly endothermic and require temperatures of 500 °C and above.
Dehydrogenation also converts
saturated fats to
unsaturated fats. One of the largest scale dehydrogenation reactions is the production of
styrene by dehydrogenation of
ethylbenzene. Typical dehydrogenation catalysts are based on iron(III) oxide, promoted by several percent
potassium oxide or potassium carbonate.
[Denis H. James William M. Castor, "Styrene" in Ullmann's Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry, Wiley-VCH, Weinheim, 2005.]
Other alkenes
The cracking processes especially fluid catalytic cracking and steam cracker produce high-purity mono-olefins from
Alkanes. Typical operating conditions use chromium (III) oxide catalyst at 500 °C. Target products are
propylene, butenes, and
isopentane, etc. These simple compounds are important raw materials for the synthesis of polymers and gasoline additives.
Alcohols to aldehydes
Alcohols can be selectively dehydrogenated to give aldehydes. This in employed in the industrial production of
butanone and is important in the production of certain
.
Oxidative dehydrogenation
Relative to thermal cracking of alkanes,
oxidative dehydrogenation (ODH) is of interest for two reasons: (1) undesired reactions take place at high temperature leading to coking and catalyst deactivation, making frequent regeneration of the catalyst unavoidable, (2) thermal dehydrogenation is expensive as it requires a large amount of heat. Oxidative dehydrogenation (ODH) of n-butane is an alternative to classical dehydrogenation, steam cracking and fluid catalytic cracking processes.
Formaldehyde is produced industrially by oxidative dehydrogenation of methanol. This reaction can also be viewed as a dehydrogenation using as the acceptor. The most common catalysts are silver metal, iron(III) oxide,
Homogeneous catalytic routes
A variety of dehydrogenation processes have been described for
. These dehydrogenation is of interest in the synthesis of fine organic chemicals.
Such reactions often rely on transition metal catalysts.
Dehydrogenation of unfunctionalized alkanes can be effected by homogeneous catalysis. Especially active for this reaction are
.
Stoichiometric processes
Dehydrogenation of amines to
nitriles can be accomplished using a variety of
reagents, such as iodine pentafluoride ().
In typical aromatization, six-membered alicyclic rings, e.g. cyclohexene, can be aromatized in the presence of hydrogenation acceptors. The elements sulfur and selenium promote this process. On the laboratory scale, , especially 2,3-dichloro-5,6-dicyano-1,4-benzoquinone (DDQ) are effective.
Main group hydrides
The dehydrogenative coupling of silanes has also been developed.
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The dehydrogenation of amine-boranes is related reaction. This process once gained interests for its potential for
hydrogen storage.
