Petrochemical - List of Significant Petrochemicals and Their Derivatives

List of Significant Petrochemicals and Their Derivatives

The following is a partial list of the major commercial petrochemicals and their derivatives:

  • ethylene - the simplest olefin; used as a chemical feedstock and ripening stimulant
    • polyethylene - polymerized ethylene
    • ethanol - via ethylene hydration (chemical reaction adding water) of ethylene
    • ethylene oxide - via ethylene oxidation
      • ethylene glycol - via ethylene oxide hydration
        • engine coolant - ethylene glycol, water and inhibitor mixture
        • polyesters - any of several polymers with ester linkages in the backbone chain
      • glycol ethers - via glycol condensation
      • ethoxylates
    • vinyl acetate
    • 1,2-dichloroethane
      • trichloroethylene
      • tetrachloroethylene - also called perchloroethylene; used as a dry cleaning solvent and degreaser
      • vinyl chloride - monomer for polyvinyl chloride
        • polyvinyl chloride (PVC) - type of plastic used for piping, tubing, other things
  • propylene - used as a monomer and a chemical feedstock
    • isopropyl alcohol - 2-propanol; often used as a solvent or rubbing alcohol
    • acrylonitrile - useful as a monomer in forming Orlon, ABS
    • polypropylene - polymerized propylene
    • propylene oxide
      • polyol - used in the production of polyurethanes
      • propylene glycol - used in engine coolant and aircraft deicer fluid
      • glycol ethers - from condensation of glycols
    • acrylic acid
      • acrylic polymers
    • allyl chloride -
      • epichlorohydrin - chloro-oxirane; used in epoxy resin formation
        • epoxy resins - a type of polymerizing glue from bisphenol A, epichlorohydrin, and some amine
  • C4 hydrocarbons - a mixture consisting of butanes, butylenes and butadienes
    • isomers of butylene - useful as monomers or co-monomers
      • isobutylene - feed for making methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE) or monomer for copolymerization with a low percentage of isoprene to make butyl rubber
    • 1,3-butadiene (or buta-1,3-diene) - a diene often used as a monomer or co-monomer for polymerization to elastomers such as polybutadiene, styrene-butadiene rubber, or a plastic such as acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS)
      • synthetic rubbers - synthetic elastomers made of any one or more of several petrochemical (usually) monomers such as 1,3-butadiene, styrene, isobutylene, isoprene, chloroprene; elastomeric polymers are often made with a high percentage of conjugated diene monomers such as 1,3-butadiene, isoprene, or chloroprene
  • higher olefins
    • polyolefins such poly-alpha-olefins, which are used as lubricants
    • alpha-olefins - used as monomers, co-monomers, and other chemical precursors. For example, a small amount of 1-hexene can be copolymerized with ethylene into a more flexible form of polyethylene.
    • other higher olefins
    • detergent alcohols
  • benzene - the simplest aromatic hydrocarbon
    • ethylbenzene - made from benzene and ethylene
      • styrene made by dehydrogenation of ethylbenzene; used as a monomer
        • polystyrenes - polymers with styrene as a monomer
    • cumene - isopropylbenzene; a feedstock in the cumene process
      • phenol - hydroxybenzene; often made by the cumene process
      • acetone - dimethyl ketone; also often made by the cumene process
      • bisphenol A - a type of "double" phenol used in polymerization in epoxy resins and making a common type of polycarbonate
        • epoxy resins - a type of polymerizing glue from bisphenol A, epichlorohydrin, and some amine
        • polycarbonate - a plastic polymer made from bisphenol A and phosgene (carbonyl dichloride)
      • solvents - liquids used for dissolving materials; examples often made from petrochemicals include ethanol, isopropyl alcohol, acetone, benzene, toluene, xylenes
    • cyclohexane - a 6-carbon aliphatic cyclic hydrocarbon sometimes used as a non-polar solvent
      • adipic acid - a 6-carbon dicarboxylic acid, which can be a precursor used as a co-monomer together with a diamine to form an alternating copolymer form of nylon.
        • nylons - types of polyamides, some are alternating copolymers formed from copolymerizing dicarboxylic acid or derivatives with diamines
      • caprolactam - a 6-carbon cyclic amide
        • nylons - types of polyamides, some are from polymerizing caprolactam
    • nitrobenzene - can be made by single nitration of benzene
      • aniline - aminobenzene
        • methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI) - used as a co-monomer with diols or polyols to form polyurethanes or with di- or polyamines to form polyureas
          • polyurethanes
    • alkylbenzene - a general type of aromatic hydrocarbon, which can be used as a presursor for a sulfonate surfactant (detergent)
      • detergents - often include surfactants types such as alkylbenzenesulfonates and nonylphenol ethoxylates
    • chlorobenzene
  • toluene - methylbenzene; can be a solvent or precursor for other chemicals
    • benzene
    • toluene diisocyanate (TDI) - used as co-monomers with diols or polyols to form polyurethanes or with di- or polyamines to form polyureas
      • polyurethanes - a polymer formed from diisocyanates and diols or polyols
    • benzoic acid - carboxybenzene
      • caprolactam
        • nylon
  • mixed xylenes - any of three dimethylbenzene isomers, could be a solvent but more often precursor chemicals
    • ortho-xylene - both methyl groups can be oxidized to form (ortho-)phthalic acid
      • phthalic anhydride
    • para-xylene - both methyl groups can be oxidized to form terephthalic acid
      • dimethyl terephthalate - can be copolymerized to form certain polyesters
        • polyesters - although there can be many types, polyethylene terephthalate is made from petrochemical products and is very widely used.
      • purified terephthalic acid - often copolymerized to form polyethylene terephthalate
        • polyesters
    • meta-xylene
      • isophthalic acid
        • alkyd resins
        • Polyamide Resins
        • Unsaturated Polyesters

Read more about this topic:  Petrochemical

Famous quotes containing the words list of, list and/or significant:

    Religious literature has eminent examples, and if we run over our private list of poets, critics, philanthropists and philosophers, we shall find them infected with this dropsy and elephantiasis, which we ought to have tapped.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    I am opposed to writing about the private lives of living authors and psychoanalyzing them while they are alive. Criticism is getting all mixed up with a combination of the Junior F.B.I.- men, discards from Freud and Jung and a sort of Columnist peep- hole and missing laundry list school.... Every young English professor sees gold in them dirty sheets now. Imagine what they can do with the soiled sheets of four legal beds by the same writer and you can see why their tongues are slavering.
    Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961)

    Nothing significant was really said,
    Though all agreed the talk superb....
    Philip Larkin (1922–1986)