What are the specific industrial and pharmaceutical uses of n-Heptane?
Heptane
Molecular formula: C7H16
Molecular weight: 100.21
CAS No.: 142-82-5
Property: colorless liquid. The melting point is – 90.7 ℃, the boiling point is 98.4 ℃, the relative density is 0.684 (20 / 4 ℃), and the refractive index is 1.3855 (25 ℃). Flash point – 1 ℃. Soluble in ethanol, chloroform, ether and benzene, insoluble in water.
Preparation method: the content of n-heptane in the fraction of platinum reforming raffinate (93-102 ℃) is more than 57%. The n-alkanes in the base are adsorbed by 5A molecular sieve in gas phase, and then desorbed by steam to obtain n-alkanes. After nickel catalyzed hydrogenation, a small amount of normal olefins are saturated and transformed into normal alkanes, and the iodine value is reduced to less than 0.1g iodine / 100g. Finally, standard n-heptane with purity of 99.9% was obtained by distillation. Industrial grade n-heptane can also be purified by concentrated sulfuric acid washing and methanol azeotropic distillation.
Widely used in the production of paints, dyes, pigments, ink, adhesives, pharmaceuticals, pesticides, food additives, feed additives, flavors and fragrances, cosmetics.
It is used in the synthesis of pharmaceutical intermediates and as a solvent in other industries.
Pharmaceutical intermediates refer to some chemical raw materials or chemical products used in the process of pharmaceutical synthesis. The industry said that the pharmaceutical intermediate industry, as an important field of fine chemical industry, will have greater development space in the future.
From the development history of China’s pharmaceutical intermediate industry, after nearly 30 years of development, pharmaceutical intermediate has developed from a small branch of the chemical industry to an emerging industry with an output value of billions of yuan, and its market competition is becoming more and more fierce.
It is understood that in the early stage of the development of the pharmaceutical intermediate industry, pharmaceutical intermediate enterprises sprung up due to small investment and high rate of return, especially in areas with favorable conditions for the development of pharmaceutical intermediates such as Zhejiang, Taizhou and Nanjing.
At present, with the change of the pharmaceutical market pattern and the limited output of new drugs in the market, the development of new products in the pharmaceutical intermediate industry is becoming more and more difficult, the competition of traditional products is becoming more and more fierce, and the profits of the pharmaceutical intermediate industry are declining rapidly. Therefore, how to develop the pharmaceutical intermediate enterprises has become a difficult problem that we have to think about.
The industry believes that it may be possible to form their own competitive advantages from the aspects of technology, influence and transformation, so as to stand out in the market.
In terms of technology, it mainly refers to improving technology and saving cost. It is reported that the process route of pharmaceutical intermediates is long, there are many reaction steps, the use of solvents is large, and there is great potential for technical improvement.
For example, raw materials with lower value can be used to replace raw materials with higher value, such as using instead of liquid bromine in the production of aminothiaxamic acid, using ammonium thiocyanate instead of potassium (sodium) thiocyanate in the production, etc.
In addition, a single solvent can be used instead of different solvents in the reaction process to recover the alcohol generated by the hydrolysis of ester products.
In terms of influence, it is mainly to form its own characteristic products and improve the influence in the industry. It is understood that due to the serious product homogenization competition in China’s pharmaceutical intermediate industry, if enterprises can create their own advantageous products, they will certainly be able to occupy more advantages in the market.
In terms of transformation, at present, with the stricter requirements of domestic environmental protection, resources are inclined to high value-added industries, and with the increase of environmental protection costs, transformation has become a problem that pharmaceutical intermediate enterprises have to think about for the sustainable development.
It is suggested that pharmaceutical intermediate enterprises extend the industrial chain upstream and downstream, and turn their main raw materials into their own production, which can further reduce the cost. At the same time, for some special raw materials, it can avoid the monopoly of key raw materials.
The industry said that the downward extension, that is, the direct synthesis of APIs from pharmaceutical intermediates, can further improve the added value of products and sell products directly to pharmaceutical companies. It is worth noting that the investment in extending downstream is large, the requirements for production technology are high, and a good relationship should be maintained with the manufacturers of API. Overall, leading enterprises may gain more competitive advantages.
In addition, R & D is of great significance to the intermediate industry. At present, China’s pharmaceutical intermediate industry generally pays less attention to R & D. Therefore, in the environment of increasing technical requirements, efficient R & D enterprises with strong R & D strength will stand out, while small and medium-sized enterprises without R & D capability may be eliminated by the market. In the future, the industry concentration will be further improved and develop from the middle and low-end development stage to a higher stage.
