Inclusive separation of acetophenone from petrochemical by‐product with 1‐phenylethanol via noncovalent interactions

Separation of the barely studied mixture of acetophenone and 1‐phenylethanol, a typical by‐product obtained by oil refinery plant, based on the preferential affinity of β‐cyclodextrin (abbreviated as β‐CD) for acetophenone is focused. To demonstrate the potential application of β‐CD for separation of acetophenone from 1‐phenylethanol, the noncovalent interactions of β‐CD with acetophenone and 1‐phenylethanol were compared from thermodynamic and conformational points of view. For the purpose of separation, a multicomponent coprecipitation technique has been established based on the selective noncovalent binding property of β‐CD, which has been proved rigorously. Under the optimized conditions, the acetophenone/1‐phenylethanol equimolar binary mixture can be separated with a separation factor >37. For the petrochemical by‐product, which contains 74.93 wt % of acetophenone, 17.79 wt % of 1‐phenylethanol, and other minor compounds, expanding the separation scale, content of acetophenone in complex can get 99.2%, and the separation efficiency of β‐CD kept stable after recycling twice. © 2014 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 60: 2962–2975, 2014