Sulfuric Acid → Trimethylhydroquinone

Participants

Reaction Conditions

Reaction Steps

To a 500 ml flask was fed 10.0 g of reactant mixture containing 8.64% of trimethylhydroquinone diacetate, 6.24% of a mixture of 4-acetoxy-2,3,6-trimethylphenol and 4-acetoxy-2,3,5-trimethylphenol, and 75.7% of 4-oxoisophorone, and the flask was displaced with nitrogen. Then, 50.0 g of water, 1.0 g of 97% sulfuric acid and 11.3 g of acetic acid were added to the above reactants and they were stirred at 100° C. for 2 hours under atmospheric pressure. The reaction mixture was cooled to a room temperature and 30 ml of hexane was added. The deposited crystals were filtered off to obtain 0.941 g of trimethylhydroquinone at a yield of 90.0%. The purity of these crystals was 100% according to the gas chromatographic analysis. With the retention time in gas chromatography and the identification with a standard sample by the results of IR absorption and MS analysis, it was confirmed that the crystals were trimethylhydroquinone.

Provenance & Evidence