Paraformaldehyde Pentaerythritol

Organic fertilizer Paraformaldehyde Pentaerythritol Pharmaceuticals Phenolic resin... 

Similar pentaerythritol cryptands have been prepared by a slight modification of the above approach. Although the general strategy is as illustrated in Eq. (8.11), atfetal formation is accomplished by reaction of pentaerythritol with paraformaldehyde. This reaction leads to diacetal 12 which is hydrolyzed in dilute H2SO4 to yield the monoacetal, 13. The latter is then used in a fashion similar to that described in Eq. 8.10, above. 

It also can be produced directly from natural gas, methane, and other aliphatic hydrocarbons, but this process yields mixtures of various oxygenated materials. Because both gaseous and liquid formaldehyde readily polymerize at room temperature, formaldehyde is not available in pure form. It is sold instead as a 37 percent solution in water, or in the polymeric form as paraformaldehyde [HO(CH20)nH], where n is between 8 and 50, or as trioxane (CH20)3. The greatest end use for formaldehyde is in the field of synthetic resins, either as a homopolymer or as a copolymer with phenol, urea, or melamine. It also is reacted with acetaldehyde to produce pentaerythritol [C(CH2OH)4], which finds use in polyester resins. Two smaller-volume uses are in urea-formaldehyde fertilizers and in hexamethylenetetramine, the latter being formed by condensation with ammonia. 

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