Materials susceptible to hydrolysis

There do not appear to be any general rules or far-reaching gmeral-izations that will enable us to predict the behavior of organic materials toward hydrolyzing agmts. For this reason, it is necessary to review one by one the chief types of compounds and to describe explicitly their behavior. 

Hydrocarbons. Saturated aliphatic hydrocarbons apparently do not suffer hydiolyffls directly. There is no record of the reaction 

With unsaturated hydrocarbons, the case is different. The reaction CnHsn + HjO — CaHln+lOH 

This addition of water to the olefins and acetylene just m itioned takes place in the liquid phase. Benzene vapor when passed with steam through a hot quartz tube (650°C) gives rise to detectable amounts of phenol  

This result has been confirm by Lloyd, who obtained a conversion into phenol of 0.3 per cent of the benzme passed through the tube. Various solid catalysts such as chromium oxide and zinc ferrite had little effect on the yield. 

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