Abstract
In the thermal decompositions of cyclohexane and its homologues, complicated mixtures of lower saturated and unsaturated hydrocarbons have been reported as the reaction products, in which ethylene and butadiene are relatively abuandant comparing with other types of hydrocarbon.Therefore the reaction has been thought as one of the potential processes for the butadiene production.
We are in the opinion that the nonselective decomposition is effected by severe conditions such as high reaction temperature.Therefore in this experiment, cyclohexane is decomposed under the condition as to prevent the secondary reactions as well as several competitive reactions using a few selected types of heterogeneous catalysts which are likely to produce butadiene.
It is found that with metal or oxide hydrogenating catalysts, such as Ru or Cr2O3, the decomposition is not occured.With CaO, however, the decomposition is almost selective to the production of ethylene and butadiene with small amount of propylene and others comparing with the case of thermal processes.
