Liquid-Phase Deamination of Benzylamine and m-Xylylenediamine in the Presence of Nickel Catalysts.

Abstract

The Kinetics of liquid-phase deamination of benzylamine and m-xylylenediaminein the presence of nickel catalysts was studied under the flow of nitrogen at 15°C.The results obtained by using benzylamine agreed well with the rate equationbased upon the Langmuir-Hinshelwood mechanism, the ratio of adsorption equilibrium constant for benzylidene benzylamine to that for benzylamine being 9.3. Itwas suggested that the reaction involved two parallel routes : (1) dehydrogenation of benzylamine, and (2) hydrogen transfer reaction between benzylamine and benzylidene benzylamine. At low conversion of benzylamine, benzylidene benzylaminewas predominantly formed by the former route and at high conversion, benzylidenebenzylamine and dibenzylamine were formed by the latter route. The reactivity of m-xylylenediamine was almost comparable to that of benzylamine. It seemed that the condensate of m-xylylendiamine consisted of its trimer and high polymers.