Phenol production

Concentrate the mother liquors from this recrystallisation and combine with the oily filtrate dissolve in 250 ml. of 10 per cent, sodium hydroxide solution, and extract with two 50 ml. portions of ether to remove non-phenolic products. Acidify the alkaline solution with hydrochloric acid, separate the oily layer, dry it over anhydrous magnesium sulphate, and distil under diminished pressure, preferably from a Claisen flask with fractionating side arm (Figs. II, 24, 2-5). Collect the o-propiophenol (65 g.) at 110-115°/6 mm. and a further quantity (20 g.) of crude p-propiophenol at 140-150°/ 1 mm. 

Acetoxybenzene is prepared by the reaction of benzene with Pd(OAc)2[325,342-345], This reaction is regarded as a potentially useful method for phenol production from benzene, if carried out with only a catalytic amount of Pd(OAc)2. Extensive studies have been carried out on this reaction in order to achieve a high catalytic turnover. In addition to oxygen and Cu(II) salts, other oxidants, such as HNOi, nitrate[346,347], potassium peroxodisulfate[348], and heteropoly acids[349,3S0], are used. HNO is said to... 

One kilogram of phenol production results ia about 0.6 kg of acetone or about 0.40—0.45 kg of acetone per kilogram of cumene used. 

The United States was a net exporter in the 1980s except for 1984—1986 when it was a net importer. This reversal resulted from a number of conditions including the global recession, foreign relationships, new overseas capacity especially in Japan and South Africa (which in 1988 was the largest exporter to the United States), and the increase in other countries of the ratio of phenol production to acetone demand (45). 

In 1993, worldwide phenol production was more than 5.2 million metric tons (1). The predominant uses of phenol are in phenoHc resins (qv), bisphenol A, caprolactam (qv), aniline, and alkylphenols (qv). 

The cumene oxidation route is the lea ding commercial process of synthetic phenol production, accounting for more than 95% of phenol produced in the world. The remainder of synthetic phenol is produced by the toluene oxidation route via benzoic acid. Other processes including benzene via cyclohexane, benzene sulfonation, benzene chlorination, and benzene oxychl orin ation have also been used in the manufacture of phenol. A Hst of U.S. phenol production plants and their estimated capacities in 1994 are shown in Table 2, and worldwide plants and capacities are shown in Table 3. 

Fig. 2. Toluene—benzoic acid process for phenol production.

Table 4 shows the worldwide and U.S. production figures and prices for phenol since the mid-1980s. Because the cumene process accounts for more than 95% of the world s phenol supply, the economics of phenol production are closely tied to this production method. In the cumene process 615 kg of acetone are coproduced with each ton of phenol produced. Thus, the economics of phenol production are influenced by acetone (qv). 

Although Dow s phenol process utilized hydrolysis of the chlorobenzene, a reaction studied extensively (9,10), phenol production from cumene (qv) became the dominant process, and the chlorobenzene hydrolysis processes were discontinued. 

While resoles account for most of the volume in phenolic products, novolacs account for most of the diversity. They are used in a wide variety of applications. They also tend to be significantly more expensive than resoles. The higher cost and pricing structure permits more creativity in their formulation. Many novolacs are made in small volumes and are formulated for very specific purposes. It is, therefore, rather difficult to make meaningful generalizations about novolacs beyond a few basic concepts. 

MUPF-resins (PMUF-resins) are mainly used for the production of so-called VI00-boards according to EN 312-5 and -7, option 2 [2]. They contain small amounts of phenol. Production procedures are described in patents and in the literature [47-51]. 

Instead of immobilizing the antibody onto the transducer, it is possible to use a bare (amperometric or potentiometric) electrode for probing enzyme immunoassay reactions (42). In this case, the content of the immunoassay reaction vessel is injected to an appropriate flow system containing an electrochemical detector, or the electrode can be inserted into the reaction vessel. Remarkably low (femtomolar) detection limits have been reported in connection with the use of the alkaline phosphatase label (43,44). This enzyme catalyzes the hydrolysis of phosphate esters to liberate easily oxidizable phenolic products. 

Structural analogues of the /]4-vinylketene E were isolated by Wulff, Rudler and Moser [15]. The enaminoketene complex 11 was obtained from an intramolecular reaction of the chromium pentacarbonyl carbene complex 10. The silyl vinylketene 13 was isolated from the reaction of the methoxy(phenyl)-carbene chromium complex 1 and a silyl-substituted phenylacetylene 12, and -in contrast to alkene carbene complex 7 - gave the benzannulation product 14 after heating to 165 °C in acetonitrile (Scheme 6). The last step of the benzannulation reaction is the tautomerisation of the /]4-cyclohexadienone F to afford the phenol product G. The existence of such an intermediate and its capacity to undergo a subsequent step was validated by Wulff, who synthesised an... 

Wulff et al. examined the necessary reaction conditions for a,fi-unsaturated aminocarbene complexes to react in a benzannulation reaction [23]. The reaction of dimethylamino(alkenyl)carbene complexes 18 with terminal alkynes in non-coordinating and non-polar solvents afforded phenol products in acceptable yields (Scheme 12). 

Merlic et al. were the first to predict that exposing a dienylcarbene complex 126 to photolysis would lead to an ort/zo-substituted phenolic product 129 [74a]. This photochemical benzannulation reaction, which provides products complementary to the classical para-substituted phenol as benzannulation product, can be applied to (alkoxy- and aminocarbene)pentacarbonyl complexes [74]. A mechanism proposed for this photochemical reaction is shown in Scheme 54. Photo activation promotes CO insertion resulting in the chromium ketene in-... 

TABLE 7.1 U.S. Phenolic Production (in millions of pounds on a gross weight basis)"... 

Ultralow-monol polyols, 223 Ultrapek, 327, 328 Ultraviolet (UV) radiation, 209 Ultraviolet spectroscopy, 490 Unimolecular micelle, 58 United States, phenolic production in, 375 Unsaturated maleate/O-phthalate/ 1,2-propanediol polyester prepolymer, 101-102 Unsaturated polyester resins (UPRs), 19, 29-30, 58-59... 

We have also investigated other oxalate esters as a potential means to improve the efficiency. The most commonly used oxalates are the 2,4,6-trichlorophenyl (TCPO) and 2,4-dinitrophenyl (DNPO) oxalates. Both have severe drawbacks namely, their low solubility in aqueous and mixed aqueous solvents and quenching of the acceptor fluorescence. To achieve better solubility and avoid the quenching features of the esters and their phenolic products, we turned to difluorophenyl oxalate (DFPO) derivatives 5 and 6 (Figure 14). Both the 2,4- and the 2,6-difluoro esters were readily synthesized and were shown to be active precursors to DPA chemiluminescence. In fact, the overall efficiency of the 2,6-difluorophenyl oxalate 5 is higher than for TCPO in the chemical excitation of DPA under the conditions outlined earlier. Several other symmetrical and unsymmet-rical esters were also synthesized, but all were less efficient than either TCPO or 2,6-DFPO (Figure 14). 

The quenching effects of these esters and the phenolic products were also measured using standard Stern-Volmer quenching procedures. 

Phenol is the starting material for numerous intermediates and finished products. About 90% of the worldwide production of phenol is by Hock process (cumene oxidation process) and the rest by toluene oxidation process. Both the commercial processes for phenol production are multi step processes and thereby inherently unclean [1]. Therefore, there is need for a cleaner production method for phenol, which is economically and environmentally viable. There is great interest amongst researchers to develop a new method for the synthesis of phenol in a one step process [2]. Activated carbon materials, which have large surface areas, have been used as adsorbents, catalysts and catalyst supports [3,4], Activated carbons also have favorable hydrophobicity/ hydrophilicity, which make them suitable for the benzene hydroxylation. Transition metals have been widely used as catalytically active materials for the oxidation/hydroxylation of various aromatic compounds. 

Selective C-H hydroxylation on arenes to give the corresponding phenols displays an attractive tool for the chemical industry and organic synthesis. Unfortunately, the desired phenolic product is more electron rich than the substrate and therefore... 

Beside iron, the catalytic properties of many other transition metals (V, Mo, Cr, Mn, Co, Ni, Cu, Ti, Zn, Pd, Pt) have been tested. These metals exhibited no activity in phenol production [7,11]. This means that Fe might be the one of few particular elements or even the only one, which can efifeciently catalyze this reaction. 

The only investigation so far refers to the second reaction of a two-step industrial process, the Hock process, which is used for phenol production world-wide [64]. 

The Hock process includes the oxidation of cumene by air to hydroperoxides using large bubble columns and the cleavage of the hydroperoxide via acid catalysis, which is reaction [OS 82]. This process is used for the majority of world-wide phenol production and, as a secondary product, also produces large quantities of acetone [64]. Phenol is used, e.g., for large-scale polymer production when reacted in a polycondensation with formaldehyde. 

Supersaturation can also be achieved by adding a liquid that is miscible with the solvent and decreases the solubility of the solute in the mixed solvent. This is called precipitation. In fine chemicals manufacture, the solid is usually dissolved in an organic solvent and water is used as the desalting agent. Precipitation also occurs when a solid product, which is insoluble in the reaction mixture, is formed by chemical reaction. For instance, a phenolic product can be purified by three possible routes ... 

Figures 44.1 and 44.2 report the performance in the gas-phase phenol methylation of the H-mordenite and of the Mg/Fe/O catalyst, respectively. The differences between the two catalysts concerned both the transformations occurring on methanol and the type of phenolic products obtained. The H-mordenite was very active at 350°C the conversion of phenol was 80%. A further increase of temperature led to a decrease of conversion. This can be attributed to a progressive deactivation of the catalyst, due to...

The results obtained indicate that in the reaction between phenol and methanol, formaldehyde is the trae methylating agent when basic catalysts are used. This indicates that the type of transformation occurring with methanol is the factor that mainly differentiates performances in phenol methylation when catalyzed by either basic or acid catalysts. The catalyst plays its role in the generation of the methylating species the nature of the latter then determines the type of phenolic products obtained. 

Mejorado investigated the asymmetric addition of various organometallic nucleophiles using method A, but the reaction could not be catalyzed. The intermediates proved to be far too reactive. However, he established that the addition of a stoichiometric amount of a preformed chiral complex [an admixture of Taddol (r/om-a, -(dimethyl-1,3-dioxolane-4,5-diyl)bis(diphenyl methanol)) and EtMgBr] to 5 affords some enantiomeric excess in the resulting phenol product 6 (Fig. 4.12).13... 

Isolation of Sesquiterpene Lactones. The ether extract was evaporated and dissolved in 952 ethanol. Then an equal volume of 42 aqueous lead acetate was added. After 1 hour the mixture was filtered to remove precipitated chlorophyll and phenolic products and the ethanol removed under vacuum. The aqueous layer was extracted with chloroform giving a dark colored oil from which the sesquiterpenes were isolated by a combination of chromatographic procedures, i.e., LH-20 gel permeation, silica gel using both packed columns and thin layer plates. A variety of solvents were also used to purify the individual sesquiterpene lactones, e.g., benzene-acetone (1 1), ethyl acetate, chloroform-methanol (9 1). On thin layer chromatographic plates, spots were visualized by spraying with 22 aqueous KMn04 solution. 

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