This month we attended the Specialty and Agrochemicals tradeshow in Charleston, SC and we learned that “coco benzyl quat” (in methanol or isopropanol) is currently available from Nova Star at a price of less than $2/lb (do not rely on this information for pricing). We assume that this quat is coco alkyl benzyl dimethyl ammonium chloride and we do not know the concentration (which may affect the cost per lb of active quat). It is used as a cationic surfactant and corrosion inhibitor. Coco alkyl is a mixture of alkyl groups of which C12 is the one in the largest % composition.
It is possible that “coco benzyl quat” may be a low cost substitute for higher cost phase-transfer catalysts, though we would be extremely cautious to assure that emulsions will not be formed during the reaction and during workup when ionic strength of the aqueous phase drops after multiple water washes.
More information about this quat can be found from the supplier at http://www.novastarlp.com/pdfs/NovaStar%20Core%20Technologies.pdf.
If your company can benefit from unmatched highly specialized expertise in PTC strong base reactions to achieve low-cost high-performance green chemistry, now contact Marc Halpern of PTC Organics to explore a path forward to integrate that expertise with your process R&D program.
About Marc Halpern
Dr. Halpern is founder and president of PTC Organics, Inc., the only company dedicated exclusively to developing low-cost high-performance green chemistry processes for the manufacture of organic chemicals using Phase Transfer Catalysis. Dr. Halpern has innovated PTC breakthroughs for pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, petrochemicals, monomers, polymers, flavors & fragrances, dyes & pigments and solvents. Dr. Halpern has provided PTC services on-site at more than 260 industrial process R&D departments in 37 countries and has helped chemical companies save > $200 million. Dr. Halpern co-authored five books including the best-selling “Phase-Transfer Catalysis: Fundamentals, Applications and Industrial Perspectives” and has presented the 2-day course “Practical Phase-Transfer Catalysis” at 50 locations in the US, Europe and Asia.
Dr. Halpern founded the journal “Industrial Phase-Transfer Catalysis” and “The PTC Tip of the Month” enjoyed by 2,100 qualified subscribers, now beyond 130 issues. In 2014, Dr. Halpern is celebrating his 30th year in the chemical industry, including serving as a process chemist at Dow Chemical, a supervisor of process chemistry at ICI, Director of R&D at Sybron Chemicals and founder and president of PTC Organics Inc. (15 years) and PTC Communications Inc. (20 years). Dr. Halpern also co-founded PTC Interface Inc. in 1989 and PTC Value Recovery Inc. in 1999. His academic breakthroughs include the PTC pKa Guidelines, the q-value for quat accessibility and he has achieved industrial PTC breakthroughs for a dozen strong base reactions as well as esterifications, transesterifications, epoxidations and chloromethylations plus contributed to more than 100 other industrial PTC process development projects.
Dr. Halpern has dedicated his adult life to his family and to phase-transfer catalysis (in that order!).
