Sciencemadness Discussion Board

deamination of Aniline or dehydroxylation of phenol

garry21 - 12-12-2011 at 11:15

hi
i was wondering if is there any possibility to deaminate Aniline to give benzene or even dehydroxilate phenol to give benzene
=-s
bye

AndersHoveland - 12-12-2011 at 11:37

Phosphine can reduce 1-naphthol to naphthalene.
"Phosphine as a Reducing Agent"
SHELDON A. BUCKLER, LOIS DOLL, FRANK K. LIND, MARTIN EPSTEIN. J. Org. Chem., 1962, 27 (3), pp 794–798

Here is a picture (of another unrelated reaction) where you can see the structures of naphthalene and 1-naphthol, which are similar to benzene and phenol, respectively.
http://www.grin.com/object/external_document.278638/bed046a7...

If you want nitrobenzene, you could perform a cold nitration on benzoic acid, forming nitrobenzoic acid. After isolating the nitrobenzoic acid, simple boiling will cause decarboxylation,liberating CO2 and leaving nitrobenzene.

[Edited on 12-12-2011 by AndersHoveland]

Nico - 12-12-2011 at 12:02

Actually you could conduct a reaction of the aniline according to Sandmeyer to bromobenzene. This is afterwards mixed with magnesium in diethyl ether, whereby a grignard-compound is formed. This metal organic stuff reacts with water to benzene.
However, this 3-step synthesis is not supposed to be pretty efficient from my point of view.