Nitroanisole from o-nitrochlorobenzene

Nitrochlorobenzene-4-sulfonic acid can be prepared ako by sulfonation of o-nitrochlorobenzene (see Table III).This method,however,is inherently more costly and less reliable than the one given above (nitration of chlorobenzene-4-sulfonic acid), because it requires the isolation of o-nifrochlorobenzene and its separation from the para isomer. Nevertheless, the second method may be preferable technically under those circumstances where the demand for p-nitrochlorobenzene is so large that a use for the by-product ortho isomer is need. At the present time, the situation is reversed. The manufacture of o-nitroanisole uses so much o-nitrochloroben-zene that the accumulated para compound is partly used in making p-nitroaniline. 

Reduction of 2-nitrochIorobenzene-4-sulfonic acid gives o-chlorometanilic acid which is used in making azo dyes. The real technical value of nitrochlorobenzene-sulfonic acid, however, lies in the ability of its chlorine atom to be replaced by various groups. For example, o-nitrophenol-p-sulfonic acid is obtained by treatment wiui sodium hydroxide, and this product, on reduction, yields o-aminophenol-p-sulfonic acid. An ogously, nitrochlorobenzenesulfonic acid gives o-nitroanisole-p-sulfonic acid by treatment with alcoholic methanol, and from this is obtained o-anisidine-p-sulfonic acid. The action of ammonia on nitrochlorobenzenesulfonic acid produces o-nitroaniline-p>sulfonic acid aniline and its derivatives produce o-nitrodiphenylamine-p Sulfonic acids (cf. Table II). 

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