Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Benzene from benzyl alcohol

g3ovn - 5-1-2011 at 15:01

There is a way to make benzene from benzyl alcohol?

Edit: also, anyone knows if this could work?
Benzene from toluene:
C6H5-CH3 + KMnO4 -> C6H5-CO2H
C6H5-CO2H + heat -> C6H6 + CO2

[Edited on 5-1-2011 by g3ovn]

[Edited on 5-1-2011 by g3ovn]

peppovsky - 5-1-2011 at 15:41

It's kind of funny, but let's give it a try:

benzyl alcohol ==> benzoic acid via jone's oxidation
benzoic acid ==> benzene via heating its copper salt in quinoline or just heating its silver salt (Hunsdiecker reaction).

Should be a paper about that somewhere on this site.


ScienceSquirrel - 5-1-2011 at 15:46

Far easier to start from benzoic acid or sodium benzoate
Both are readily available and can be converted in to benzene quite easily.
The are recipes on this site!

vulture - 6-1-2011 at 13:00

http://www.sciencemadness.org/talk/viewthread.php?tid=325

That topic has all the info you need.

Closed.