Acrylic acid

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Acrylic acid (IUPAC: prop-2-enoic acid) is an organic compound with the formula CH2CHCO2H. It is the simplest unsaturated carboxylic acid, consisting of a vinyl group connected directly to a carboxylic acid terminus. This colorless liquid has a characteristic acrid or tart smell. It is miscible with water, alcohols, ethers, and chloroform. More than one million MT are produced annually. Acrylic acid is produced from propene (aka propylene) which is a byproduct of ethylene and gasoline production.

CH2=CHCH3 + 1.5 O2 → CH2=CHCO2H + H2O

Because acrylic acid and its esters have long been valued commercially, many other methods have been developed but most have been abandoned for economic or environmental reasons. An early method was the hydrocarboxylation of acetylene ("Reppe chemistry"):

HCCH + CO + H2O → CH2=CHCO2H

This method requires nickel carbonyl and high pressures of carbon monoxide. It was once manufactured by the hydrolysis of acylonitrile which is derived from propene by ammoxidation, was abandoned because the method cogenerates ammonium derivatives. Other now abandoned precursors to acrylic acid include ketene and ethylene cyanohydrin.[2]

Reactions and uses

Acrylic acid undergoes the typical reactions of a carboxylic acid and, when reacted with an alcohol, it will form the corresponding ester. The esters and salts of acrylic acid are collectively known as acrylates (or propenoates). The most common alkyl esters of acrylic acid are methyl-, butyl-, ethyl-, and 2-ethylhexyl-acrylate.

Acrylic acid and its esters readily combine with themselves or other monomers (e.g. amides, acrylonitrile, vinyl, styrene, and butadiene) by reacting at their double bond, forming homopolymers or copolymers which are used in the manufacture of various plastics, coatings, adhesives, elastomers, as well as floor polishes, and paints.

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