Liquid phase allylation of phenol using H zeolite

Abstract

Investigations on the allylation of phenol with allyl acetate were carried out using H-30 catalyst. The allylation of phenol (molar ratio of AAc: phenol = 1:1) gave mainly allyl phenyl ether along with C-allylated products (ortho- and para-allyl phenols) at 90◦Cin a stirred vessel.Whenphenol is taken in excess and at higher temperatures side reactions like polymerization was observed. The rate dependence study indicated that the rate of allylation has a first-order dependence with respect to catalyst, allyl acetate and phenol concentration. From the study on the effect of temperature, the rates of allylation were plotted as −ln(rate) versus 1000/T (Arrhenius plot) and the activation energy Ea evaluated was found to be 7.12 kcal mol−1. Based on the above observations, a speculative mechanism for allylation of phenol catalyzed by H-30 has been proposed.