Benzoic Acid → (2,5-Dimethylphenyl)(phenyl)methanone

Participants

Reaction Steps

The dimethylbenzophenone fraction is contaminated with a small amount (0.05-0.1 lb/lb dimethylbenzophenones) of benzoic acid that co-distills with it. The benzoic acid is removed from the final product as described in Example 1. The washed dimethylbenzophenone product may or may not be given a final distillation in a 10 trays Oldershaw column to improve product color and purity as described in Example 1. Synthesis of dimethylbenzophenone from an isomeric mixture of xylenes will produce a mixture of six dimethylbenzophenone isomers. Synthesis from pure p-xylene will produce only 2,5-dimethylbenzophenone; pure m-xylene will produce 2,4-, 2,5-, and 2,6-dimethylbenzophenone; and pure o-xylene will produce 2,3- and 3,4-dibenzophenone. One can therefore tailor the specific isomeric mixture produced by a provident choice of the composition of the initial xylene mixture.

Provenance & Evidence