Vapor-phase catalytic dehydration of terminal diols

Vapor-phase catalytic reactions of several terminal diols were investigated over several rare earth oxides, such as Sc2O3, Y2O3, CeO2, Yb2O3, and Lu2O3. Sc2O3 showed selective catalytic activity in the dehydration of terminal diols with long carbon chain, such as 1,6-hexanediol, 1,7-heptanediol, 1,8-octanediol, 1,9-nonanediol, 1,10-decanediol, and 1,12-dodecanediol, to produce the corresponding unsaturated alcohols. In the dehydration of 1,6-hexanediol, 5-hexen-1-ol was produced with selectivity over 60 mol%, together with by-products such as ɛ-caprolactone and oxacycloheptane. In the dehydration of 1,10-decanediol, 9-decen-1-ol was produced with selectivity higher than 70 mol%. In addition to Sc2O3, heavy rare earth oxides such as Lu2O3 as well as monoclinic ZrO2 showed moderate selectivity in the dehydration of the terminal diols.