Oxidation of Diphenylmethanol: An Investigation of Kinetics in the Solid State

Abstract

Solvent-less reactions make way for the elimination of hazardous waste generated in many chemical syntheses. Disposal of chemical solvents is difficult because they are often hazardous to the environments, toxic, flammable, and even carcinogenetic. In addition, disposal of hazardous waste is expensive. To reduce the number of bottles of chemical waste produced each year by scientists, solvent-less reactions must be studied. Furthermore, there is limited research on solid state reaction kinetics which could hold promise for new types of chemical syntheses. This research investigates the oxidation of diphenyl methanol to benzophenone in the solid state. Oxidation of diphenyl methanol has been measured at room temperature in traditional solvent conditions and in the solidstate using infrared spectroscopy. This study aims to measure the rate of reaction in the solid state at varying temperatures and compare it to the rate of reaction in traditional solvent based reaction conditions. Solid state kinetics will likely differ from solvent based reactions partially due to the phase the reaction is happening in. This data will allow for determination of the reaction rate law, rate constant, and activation energy for each system and allow insight into solid state kinetics.