Synthesis of cyclohexylphenol via phenol hydroalkylation using Co2P/zeolite catalysts

One-pot synthesis of cyclohexylphenol via isopropyl alcohol-assisted phenol conversion using the tandem system RANEY® Nickel plus hierarchical Beta zeolite

“…[16][17][18] Cyclohexylphenols are traditionally obtained through two routes: (a) phenol alkylation with either cyclohexene [19][20][21] or cyclohexanol, 22 and (b) phenol hydroalkylation. [23][24][25][26] In the first pathway, different catalysts, such as heteropolyacids (H 3 PW 12 O 40 ) supported over mesoporous silica 19,20 and zeolites (especially HY and H-Beta), 21,22 have shown promising results, in terms of both conversion and selectivity. However, this route requires either cyclohexene or cyclohexanol alongside phenol in the initial reaction mixture.…”

“…By contrast, the second pathway ( phenol hydroalkylation) requires only phenol since cyclohexanol/cyclohexene are formed in the reaction medium from the starting reagent and, hence, can be considered more sustainable and efficient. In this regard, both Co 2 P/Beta 24 and Ni/SiO 2 -Al 2 O 3 26 catalysts catalyzed the synthesis of cyclohexylphenols with high selectivity in phenol hydroalkylation, albeit requiring high hydrogen pressures (40-100 bars) and temperatures (above 200 °C). For this reason, new routes should be explored for a one-pot synthesis of cyclohexylphenols under milder operation conditions.…”

“…On the other hand, our results outperform those recently published in one-pot hydroalkylation work using Co 2 P/Beta that achieved lower selectivities towards cyclohexylphenols (56%). 24…”