A fully continuous-flow diazotization−hydrolysis protocol has been developed for the preparation of p-cresol. This process started from the diazotization of p-toluidine to form diazonium intermediate. The reaction was then quenched by urea and subsequently followed by a hydrolysis to give the final product p-cresol. Three types of byproducts were initially found in this reaction sequence. After an optimization of reaction conditions (based on impurity analysis), side reactions were eminently inhibited, and a total yield up to 91% were ultimately obtained with a productivity of 388 g/h. The continuous-flow methodology was used to avoid accumulation of the highly energetic and potentially explosive diazonium salt to realize the safe preparation for p-cresol.
In this paper, the kinetics of acylation reaction of o-phenylenediamine/p-phenylenediamine and benzoic anhydride were determined in microreactors, respectively. A kinetic model was established, all kinetic parameters including reaction orders, reaction rate constants, pre-exponential factors, and activation energies were acquired. Validation experiments showed experimental data fit well with calculated data at different reactant concentrations and residence times. The comparisons of the reaction rate constants and activation energies were summarized to show the difference of chemical reactivities of phenylenediamines. According to the calculation of the kinetic model, the optimized reaction conditions were listed to meet the monoacylation selectivity equal to 97.0%.
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