Hydrochloric Acid → 4-[2-(4-Hydroxyphenyl)propan-2-yl]-2-methylphenol

Participants

Reaction Steps

Anhydrous HCl was introduced, with adequate cooling, into a mixture of 134 g (1.0 mole) of freshly prepared 4-isopropenylphenol (made by thermally cracking BPA in the presence of catalytic amounts of sodium hydroxide and separating it from the coproduct phenol by fractional vacuum distillation) and 540 g (5.0 moles) of o-cresol, while maintaining the temperature of the ensuing exothermic reaction below 50° C. After 4 hours, the red colored reaction mixture was stripped of HCl and excess cresol under water aspirator vacuum and the resultant straw colored melt was purified by recrystallization from cyclohexane. The 98.7% pure MMEP had a mp of 112°-113° C.

Provenance & Evidence