ENHANCE DECARBOXYLATION REACTION OF CARBOXYLIC-ACIDS IN CLAY-MINERALS

Clay minerals are important constituents of the Earth's crust. These m inerals catalyze reactions in several ways: by energy transfer process es, redox reactions, stabilization of intermediates and by Bronsted or Lewis acidity behavior. Important set of organic reactions can be imp roved in the precedence of clay minerals. Besides the properties of cl ays to catalyze chemical reactions, it is possible to enhance some of its reactions by using ionizing radiation. The phenomenon of radiation -induced catalysis may be connected with ionizing process in the solid and with the trapped non-equilibrium charge carriers. In this paper w e are reporting the decarboxylation reaction of carboxylic acids catal yzed by clay and by irradiation of the system acid-clay. We studied th e behaviour of several carboxylic acids and analyzed them by gas chrom atography, X ray and infrared spectroscopy. The results showed that de carboxylation of the target compound is the dominating pathway. The re action is enhance by gamma radiation in several orders of magnitude.