Claims
- 1. In a high solids process for preparing an amine oxide by the carbon dioxide-promoted reaction of a tert-amine with a 15-20% stoichiometric excess of an aqueous hydrogen peroxide having a concentration of 50-90% by weight in the presence of an amount of ethyl acetate sufficient to maintain the reaction mixture stirrable throughout the reaction, the improvement which comprises avoiding discoloration of the product by introducing the carbon dioxide at a variable rate during the reaction so that its concentration in the reaction mixture does not exceed 0.2% by weight at any time throughout the reaction, the total amount of carbon dioxide promoter employed being about 0.1-0.2%, based on the weight of the reaction mixture.
- 2. The process of claim 1 wherein the tert-amine is a compound corresponding to the formula RR'R"N in which R,R', and R" are independently selected from primary alkyl and hydroxyalkyl groups containing 1-30 carbons.
- 3. The process of claim 2 wherein R is methyl, ethyl, or hydroxyethyl; R' is a primary alkyl group containing 6-20 carbons; and R" is independently selected from methyl, ethyl, hydroxyethyl, and primary alkyl groups containing 6-20 carbons.
- 4. The process of claim 3 wherein R and R" are methyl.
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
This application is a continuation of application Ser. No. 07/939,812, filed Sep. 3, 1992, now abandoned, which is a continuation-in-part of application Ser. Nos. 07/740,063 and 07/740,404, both filed 5 Aug. 1991 and now abandoned.
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Continuations (1)
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Number |
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Parent |
939812 |
Sep 1992 |
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Continuation in Parts (1)
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Number |
Date |
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Parent |
740063 |
Aug 1991 |
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