Determination of fatty acid chlorination by PCl₃: mechanistic and coordination studies

The aim of this project was the optimisation of the lauric acid chlorination by PCl3 and identification of the phosphorus based products and by-products formed in it, understanding the reaction mechanism. The project was expanded with the synthesis and subsequent coordination to transition metals of long chain carboxylic acid and amino carboxylic acids. Optimisation of the reaction was carried out by variation of experimental parameters. With each variation, the product was analysed in order to determine the best conditions to obtain the higher conversion into lauroyl chloride. The conversion was determined by 1H NMR spectroscopy, throughout the normalisation of the peak integrals of the starting material (lauric acid) and the product (lauroyl chloride).The identification of phosphorus based products and by-products was studied in parallel through optimising the reaction. [Continues.]