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 4-bromoanisole 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 2N hydrochloric acid, three times with 100 ml of 2N 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