Issue 7, 2007
From the journal:

Green Chemistry

The synthesis of o-cyclohexylphenol in supercritical carbon dioxide: towards a continuous two-step reaction

Rodrigo Amandi,a   Katherine Scovell,a   Peter Licence,a   Tobias J. Lotzb  and  Martyn Poliakoff*a  

* Corresponding authors

a School of Chemistry, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham, UK
E-mail: Martyn.poliakoff@nottingham.ac.uk

b SI Group-Switzerland GmbH, Kästeliweg 7, Postfach, Pratteln 1, Switzerland

Abstract

The use of supercritical carbon dioxide, scCO2, as an environmentally friendly reaction medium for the continuous synthesis of the fine chemical o-cyclohexylphenol has been investigated. The alkylation of phenol was carried out using a solid acid catalyst, γ-Al2O3, using both cyclohexene and cyclohexanol as alkylating agents. Though cheaper, cyclohexanol gave poorer results because of the water formed in the reaction inhibiting the catalyst performance. The possibility of performing the reaction as a two-step process was then investigated. The dehydration of cyclohexanol over the same catalyst was found to be quantitative. Clearly, the water by-product must be eliminated before the alkylation step and, although this was found to be difficult to achieve on a small scale, the process looks promising as a two-step reaction.

Graphical abstract: The synthesis of o-cyclohexylphenol in supercritical carbon dioxide: towards a continuous two-step reaction

About
Cited by
Related
Download options Please wait...

Article information

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1039/B618727G
Article type
Paper
Submitted
02 Jan 2007
Accepted
28 Feb 2007
First published
20 Mar 2007

Green Chem., 2007,9, 797-801

Permissions

Request permissions

The synthesis of o-cyclohexylphenol in supercritical carbon dioxide: towards a continuous two-step reaction

R. Amandi, K. Scovell, P. Licence, T. J. Lotz and M. Poliakoff, Green Chem., 2007, 9, 797 DOI: 10.1039/B618727G

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements