Phenolic compounds, solubilised

Phenolic compounds such as cresol, chloro-cresol, chloroxylenol and thymol are frequently solubilised with soap to form clear solutions which are widely used for disinfection. Solution of Chloroxylenol BP, for example, contains 5% w/v chloroxylenol with terpineol in an alcoholic soap solution. 

In addition to stabilisers, antioxidants and ultra-violent absorbers may also be added to PVC compounds. Amongst antioxidants, trisnonyl phenyl phosphite, mentioned previously, is interesting in that it appears to have additional functions such as a solubiliser or chelator for PVC insoluble metal chlorides formed by reaction of PVC degradation products with metal stabilisers. Since oxidation is both a degradation reaction in its own right and may also accelerate the rate of dehydrochlorination, the use of antioxidants can be beneficial. In addition to the phenyl phosphites, hindered phenols such as octadecyl 3-(3,5-di-tcrt-butyl-4-hydroxyphenyI)propionate and 2,4,6-tris (2,5-di-rcrt-butyl-4-hydroxybenzyl)-1,3,5-trimethylbenzene may be used. 

Poly(alkyl aryl ether) dendrimers functionalised at the periphery with carboxylic acid groups [69] or phenol groups [70] have been employed in this capacity by Ramamurthy and co-workers. After the presence of a hydrophobic microenvironment within the den-drimer core had been established via pyrene solubilisation studies, photochemical reactions were carried out to assess the viability of the dendrimers as reaction cages or phase transfer catalysts. All of the photochemical reactions studied were carried out successfully in aqueous media, on compounds normally water insoluble, with increasing cage effect observed for higher generation dendrimers. The viability of these dendrimer systems as photochemical reaction media was thus established. 

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