Wacker Process

Wacker Process or Hoechst-Wacker process

Wacker Process

Wacker process is an industrial process for the oxidation of terminal alkenes. In this process, Alkene can directly be oxidised to their corresponding aldehydes and ketones by treating them with a solution of Palladium(II) chloride (PdCl₂) containing a catalytic amount of Copper(II) chloride (CuCl₂) in the presence of oxygen. This transformation has also been applied in a number of domino processes with the Heck reaction. This chemical reaction was one of the first homogeneous catalysis with organopalladium chemistry applied on an industrial scale.

All catalysts are regenerated and only the alkene and oxygen are consumed. Without copper(II) chloride and hydrochloric acid as oxidizing agents, the palladium would precipitate out and the reaction would come to a halt. Air, pure oxygen, or a number of other oxidizers can then oxidise the resultant CuCl back to CuCl₂, allowing the cycle to repeat.

Mechanism of Wacker Process

The so called Wacker-Tsuji oxidation is the laboratory scale version of the above reaction, for example the conversion of 1-decene to 2-decanone with palladium(II) chloride and copper(II) chloride in a water / DMF solvent mixture in the presence of air.

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