P-sec-Butyltoluene

When a sophomore organic chemistry student goes to the blackboard and predicts that p-sec-butyltoluene is a plausible product of the reaction of 1-butene and toluene in acid solution but that m-n-butyltoluene is not plausible, that student has demonstrated knowledge of a formal system that will usually predict or rationalize a wide variety of organic transformations. Yet when one studies this trail of chalk marks, can it be claimed that... 

Separation of p-alkyltoluenes containing an alkyl chain of two to five C atoms from an isomeric mixture by inclusion formation with a-cyclodextrin has also been reported For example, when a 35 27 38 mixture of o- 44a), m- (44c), and p-cymene 44 b) was treated with an aqueous solution of 0.8 g a-cyclodextrin at room temperature for )i,a44b enriched a-cyclodextrin inclusion compound was obtained, which upon steam distillation gave 44b (0.1 g) contaminated with 1 % of 44a and 2% of 44 c. Application of this method to the separation of p-ethyl, p-n-butyl, p-tert-butyl-, and p-sec-butyltoluene from mixtures of their isomers has also been reported... 

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