SHANG Jie^{1, 2},  ZHAO Wen-jun^1*,  WANG Xu^{1, 2},  WANG Hua^{1, 2},  SONG Tie-shan¹

(1. Xinjiang Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, CAS, Urumqi Xinjiang 830011, China;2. Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing 100049, China)

Abastract: The Blanc monochloromethylation of m-xylene or o-xylene with paraformaldehyde and hydrogen chloride catalyzed by alkyl-sulfonic ammonium, a phase transfer catalyst has been deveploped. The effect of different ammoniums was investigated. The N-propane sulfone pyridinium was taken an example to study the influence of the amount of catalyst, reaction temperature, reaction time and the repeated use of catalyst. The product was analyzed by GC-MS and GC. The results showed that the conversion of m-xylene or o-xylene and the selectivity of monochloromethylation were over 90% under the optimum conditions. The catalyst could be reused for 4 times without obvious invalidity.

Key words: m-Xylene; o-Xylene; Chloromethylation; Alkyl-sulfonic ammonium

E-mail: zhaow@j ms. xjb. ac. cn

Journal of Molecular Catalysis, Vol. 24, Issue 4, 2010, 333~338