Sulfuric Acid → Phenol

Participants

Reaction Steps

Cyclohexylbenzene oxidation products (including cyclohexylbenzene hydroperoxide, CHBHP) using NHPI as the first catalyst with varying CHBHP concentrations are used (without first concentrating the hydroperoxide) in this example. An amount of 5.0 milliliters of such feed was charged into a glass flask held at 58° C. Toward this feed was added 5000 ppm of sulfuric acid diluted in acetone in a semi-batch mode. Cleavage reaction occurred instantaneously as indicated by the reaction exotherm. An aliquot was taken after 10 min and sulfuric acid was neutralized using 10 wt % sodium carbonate solution. The sample was analyzed by GC and the results are listed in Table 4. High conversion of CHBHP and high yield to phenol and cyclohexanone were observed in all cases.

Provenance & Evidence