Separation of close boiling phenols and naphthols through their selective etherification with isobutylene / isoamylene acidic ion exchange resin as catalyst

✍ Scribed by Swapan Kumar Ghosh; Man Mohan Sharma

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1992
• Weight: 784 KB
• Volume: 16
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0923-1137
• DOI: 10.1016/0923-1137(92)90023-u

✦ Synopsis

The etherification of phenol and substituted phenols, such as o-chlorophenol, o-ethylphenol and guaiacol and a-and 13-naphthols with isobutylene and isoamylene was studied. The etherification was carried out in the presence of an acidic ion exchange resin, Amberlyst 15, as a catalyst and in the temperature range of 5 to 30°C. The relative rates of etherification of phenol / o-chlorophenol, o-ethylphenol / guaiacol and c~-naphthol /13-naphthol were measured. A novel separation strategy, based on selectived etherification and subsequent cracking of tert-butyl / tert-amyl ethers, was successfully applied for the close boiling phenols and naphthols. The purification of [3-naphthol containing a-naphthol impurity through the selective acid catalysed C-alkylation of a-naphthol with isobutylene and isoamylene was also found to be successful.