M-Cresol → NSC406958

Participants

Reaction Conditions

Reaction Steps

21.8 g of sodium hydride (55% in oil) are placed in 100 ml of absolute pyridine and treated dropwise during 1 hour with 54.1 g of m-cresol in 200 ml of pyridine. After completion of the reaction, 1.2 g of cuprous chloride are added and subsequently 93.5 g of 4bromoanisole are added dropwise during 1 hour at reflux temperature. After refluxing for 4 hours, the pyridine is distilled off, the mixture being heated at the end up to 170° C. (internal temperature). After 2 hours, 350 ml of water are added dropwise with ice-cooling, followed by 500 ml of diethyl ether and a further 150 ml of water. The mixture is filtered with suction over Celite and the phases are separated. The organic phase is washed in sequence with 200 ml of 2 N hydrochloric acid, three times with 100 ml of 2 N sodium hydroxide each time, with 200 ml of water and with 200 ml of saturated sodium chloride solution. After drying over sodium sulfate and evaporation, there is obtained a brown-red oil which is filtered over a five-fold amount of silica gel with n-hexane/diethyl ether and then distilled to yield pure p-(m-tolyloxy)anisole; b.p. 106°-108° C./0.04 Torr; nD20 =1.5738.

Provenance & Evidence