Formation of low molecular weight carbonyl compounds by sensitized photochemical decomposition of aliphatic hydrocarbons in seawater

Summary

Anthraquinone has been found to be a compound occuring frequently in seawater. Excited by solar radiation it acts as one of many natural and man-made photosensitizers and can thus be used as a model substance for the study of sensitized photochemical reactions of environmental chemicals. Experimentally it has been shown to mediate the oxidative photochemical decomposition of aliphatic hydrocarbons which, lacking absorption bands in the solar UV range at sea level, are by themselves photochemically inert. Formaldehyde, smaller amounts of acetaldehyde and acetone as well as a still unidentified carbonyl compound are the principal low molecular weight products generated in the anthraquinone-sensitized photooxidation, with natural as well as artificial sunlight, of straight chain saturated hydrocarbons accommodated in high purity water. Qualitatively the same results were obtained in natural seawater as reaction medium from which particles were removed by glass fiber filtration and organic compounds by adsorption on activated charcoal. The concomittant generation of homologous series of methylketones and terminal alkenes suggest a decomposition mechanism involving cyclic electron rearrangement in a 6-membered transition state. Based on HPLC analysis of their 2,4-dinitrophenylhydrazones, the rates of volatile carbonyl generation in the sensitized photo-oxidation of n-tetradecane was determined in the liquid phase. Also determined was the rate of formaldehyde formation in the gas phase from n-tetradecane and from two Brazilian crude oils. The rates of generation of acetaldehyde and acetone could not be determined in the experiments with crude oils because of irregular changes of concentrations with time. The rate of concentration increase of formaldehyde in the vapour phase over the hydrocarbon surface film was similar to that in the water underneath. The artifical light source was a high pressure xenon lamp whose emission spectrum closely resembles that of natural sunlight at sea level. It was calibrated against the intensity of natural sunlight using pnitroacetophenone/pyridine as binary chemical actinometer.