Gentlefolk,
A quick web search came up with this intriguing snippet from Paul Sabatier's
1912 Nobel Prize lecture:
At a temperature of between 250� and
300�C powdered copper very conveniently brings about
dehydrogenation of primary alcohols into aldehydes and of
secondary alcohols into acetones, and this is a very useful
practical method of effecting this transformation.
Thus the concept of a temporary compound prompted me to
use finely divided metals, first as hydrogenation catalysts and
then as dehydrogenation catalysts.
For several years I have been carrying out, together with
Mailhe, research inspired by the same idea.
Some ten years ago Ipatief had pointed out that alumina
readily splits alcohols into ethylenic hydrocarbons and water
by catalysis. I have established that this property is also
possessed by other oxides, especially blue tungsten oxide and
thorium oxide. This latter can be used indefinitely for
dehydrating an alcohol; when it has become fouled through
prolonged use and its activity has thereby been reduced, all
that is necessary is to oxidize it to restore all its original
catalytic power.
I've been a fan of tungsten for some time; it held up very well in electric
propulsion experiments on arcjets at very high temperatures with a variety of
propellants, including possibly water, if failing memory serves. Definitely
with ammonia and hydrazine. It forms oxides readily that should stay in
place because of its mass and a complex and possibly interlocking structure.
I don't know if anyone has tried it on H2O2. (Sacrifice a light bulb and find
out?--Somewhat thicker wire may be needed.)
--Best, Gerald
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