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gfd43tg
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Hello, I was working on a textbook problem that was referencing a paper regarding the mechanism for the production of Terephthalic acid (TPA). It piqued my interest so I found the original paper and did some reading. At least in 1987 when this paper was published, the intermediate reactions were not well known (I haven't followed up to see if any progress has been made on this specific reaction mechanism). The initial goal of the problem was to plot the concentration of the species vs. time in a batch reactor for this reaction
##A \xrightarrow {k_{1}} R \xrightarrow {k_{2}} S## (catalyst)
## R + S \xrightarrow {k_{3}} 2S ## (autocatalytic)
where A = K-benzoate, R = lumped intermediates (K-phthalatis, K-isophthalates.
and K-benzenecarboxylates). and S = K-terephthalate.
The authors conjectured that there must be an autocatalytic side reaction to explain their resulting concentration-time curve.
I plotted the concentrations over time and here are my Matlab results
I assume the "S-shape" is reference to species S, which has low concentration change at first, then rapidly increasing, then levels off. However, I was wondering why having an autocatalytic reaction would produce this curve which would lead the authors to make this conjecture.
[/PLAIN]
pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/ie00068a034
One off-topic sidenote: In this paper, I noticed they actually have their figure 1 and figure 2 reversed. I noticed some grammatical errors as well. I just started reading scientific papers, and I can find small errors in most of them. Are these not proof-read extensively before submitting to journals?? It seems like for only a 5 page paper, there should be virtually no blunders.
##A \xrightarrow {k_{1}} R \xrightarrow {k_{2}} S## (catalyst)
## R + S \xrightarrow {k_{3}} 2S ## (autocatalytic)
where A = K-benzoate, R = lumped intermediates (K-phthalatis, K-isophthalates.
and K-benzenecarboxylates). and S = K-terephthalate.
The authors conjectured that there must be an autocatalytic side reaction to explain their resulting concentration-time curve.
(Revankar, Doraiswamy)During the series of experimental runs, we found that
in all cases the rate of formation of terephthalate product
follows an S-shaped curve, indicating the probable existence
of a parallel autocatalytic reaction involving the
conversion of intermediates (catalyzed by the product
potassium terephthalate).
I plotted the concentrations over time and here are my Matlab results
I assume the "S-shape" is reference to species S, which has low concentration change at first, then rapidly increasing, then levels off. However, I was wondering why having an autocatalytic reaction would produce this curve which would lead the authors to make this conjecture.
[/PLAIN]
pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/ie00068a034
One off-topic sidenote: In this paper, I noticed they actually have their figure 1 and figure 2 reversed. I noticed some grammatical errors as well. I just started reading scientific papers, and I can find small errors in most of them. Are these not proof-read extensively before submitting to journals?? It seems like for only a 5 page paper, there should be virtually no blunders.
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