Tetrahydrofuran (CH2)3CH2O Instruction:

Tetrahydrofuran, a heterocyclic organic compound with the molecular formula C4H8O, is an ether, a fully hydrogenated product of the aromatic compound furan, which is a colorless, miscible with water, organic liquid with a small viscosity at room temperature and pressure.

The chemical formula of this cyclic ether can be written as (CH2)4O. THF is a commonly used medium-polar nonprotonic solvent due to its long liquid range. Its main use is as a precursor for polymers. Although the odor and chemical properties of THF are very similar to those of ether, the anesthetic effect is poor.

(CH2)3CH2O Production Method:

Industrial production was first started with sugar aldehyde as raw material, and the mixture of sugar aldehyde and steam was passed into a reactor filled with zinc-chromium-manganese metal oxide (or palladium) catalyst, and the carbonyl group was removed at 400-420°C to make furan; then (CH2)3CH2O was produced by hydrogenation of furan at 80-120°C with skeletal nickel as catalyst.

This method consumes about 3 tons of polysaccharide aldehyde to produce 1 ton of tetrahydrofuran. There are many kinds of production methods developed later, and the industrialized methods include 1,4-butanediol catalytic dehydration cyclic method, because 1,4-butanediol is made from acetylene and formaldehyde, this method is called Ray by method (Reppe method); the production of tetrahydrofuran by using 1,4-dichlorobutene, a by-product of chlorobutadiene, a monomer of chlorobutyl rubber, is called dichlorobutene method; the catalytic hydrogenation method with maleic anhydride as raw material was developed.