Kinetic Study of Light Mercaptans in the Presence of Merox Catalyst and Caustic Soda

Due to the disgusting smell of light mercaptans, researchers are not interested in working with them, so there is not enough information available on their kinetics. This work presents kinetic investigation of oxidation of ethyl, normal-propyl, iso-propyl, and iso-butyl mercaptans in the presence of Merox catalyst. The results demonstrated that the oxidation rates of all mercaptans were first-order reaction with respect to mercaptan concentration, and the increase in NaOH concentration reduced the oxidation rate. While it was observed that there was a similarity between oxidation pattern of iso-propyl and ethyl mercaptans, another similarity was discovered between normal-propyl and iso-butyl mercaptans.