Colorless, clear liquid; gasoline aroma.
Clear, colorless, flammable liquid with a mild but unpleasant hydrocarbon odor. Based on a
triangle bag odor method, an odor threshold concentration of 1.0 ppbv was reported by Nagata and
Takeuchi (1990).
Plasticizer; surfactants. Used as a comonomer in the production of high density
polyethylene and linear low density polyethylene. Starting material for synthesis of a variety of
compounds including nananoic acid.
1-Octene is a linear α-olefin mainly used as a comonomer in the synthesis of linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE). Extensive work has been reported on the hydroformylation of 1-octene using various catalysts. It is also an important source to synthesize important petrochemical building blocks via epoxidation reaction.
1-Octene acts as a comonomer used in the preparation of polyethylene, especially high-density polyethylene (HDPE) and linear low-density polyethylene(LLDPE) resins. It is also used in organic synthesis, surfactants and plasticizers. Further, it is used in process regulators and viscosity adjustors. In addition to this, it is used in the preparation of linear aldehyde through the oxo synthesis (hydroformylation) to get the nonanal.
Production method: 1) from Allyl chloride and n-Amyl magnesium bromide. 2) from Octanol with Iodine and red phosphorus. 3) from Monosodium acetylene with Octyl iodide in liquid Ammonia at 40” C. under pressure.
ChEBI: An octene with an unsaturation C-1.
High strength odor; recommend smelling in a 1.00% solution or less.
A colorless liquid. Flash point 70°F. Insoluble in water and less dense (at about 6 lb / gal) than water. Hence floats on water. Vapors are heavier than air and may settle in depressions. Reported to biodegrade very slowly. Used in organic synthesis, surfactants, and plasticizers.
Highly flammable. Insoluble in water.
1-OCTENE may react vigorously with strong oxidizing agents. May react exothermically with reducing agents to release hydrogen gas. In the presence of various catalysts (such as acids) or initiators, may undergo exothermic addition polymerization reactions.
Generally low toxicity. Mildly anesthetic at high vapor concentrations. May irritate eyes.
Identified as one of 140 volatile constituents in used soybean oils collected from a
processing plant that fried various beef, chicken, and veal products (Takeoka et al., 1996).
Biological. Biooxidation of 1-octene may occur yielding 7-octen-1-ol, which may oxidize to 7-
octenoic acid (Dugan, 1972).
Photolytic. Atkinson and Carter (1984) reported a rate constant of 8.1 x 10-18 cm3/molecule?sec
for the reaction of 1-octene and OH radicals in the atmosphere.
Chemical/Physical. The reaction of ozone and OH radicals with 1-octene was studied in a
flexible outdoor Teflon chamber (Paulson and Seinfeld, 1992). 1-Octene reacted with ozone
producing heptanal, a thermally stabilized C7 biradical, and hexane at yields of 80, 10, and 1%,
respectively. With OH radicals, only 15% of 1-octene was converted to heptanal. In both
reactions, the remaining compounds were tentatively identified as alkyl nitrates (Paulson and
Seinfeld, 1977). Grosjean et al. (1996) investigated the atmospheric chemistry of 1-octene with
ozone and an ozone-nitrogen oxide mixture under ambient conditions. The reaction of 1-octene
and ozone in the dark yielded formaldehyde, hexanal, heptanal, cyclohexanone, and a compound
tentatively identified as 2-oxoheptanal. The sunlight irradiation of 1-octene with ozone-nitrogen
oxide yielded the following carbonyls: formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, propanal, 2-butanone,
butanal, pentanal, glyoxal, hexanal, heptanal, and pentanal.
Chemical/Physical. Complete combustion in air yields carbon dioxide and water.
Distil 1-octene under nitrogen from sodium which removes water and peroxides. Peroxides can also be removed by percolation through dried, acid washed, alumina. Store it under N2, or Ar in the dark. [Strukul & Michelin J Am Chem Soc 107 7563 1985, Beilstein 1 H 221, 1 II 199, 1 IV 874.]
