Kinetics of then-butoxylation of p-chloronitrobenzene under liquid−liquid−liquid phase transfer catalysis

Abstract

Liquid−liquid phase transfer catalysis (L−L PTC) processes suffer from the disadvantages of nonrecovery and nonreuse of the catalyst in most the cases and can be changed to triphase systems, either with solid-supported catalyst or a third liquid phase, so that the catalyst could be reused repeatedly. The three liquid phase (L−L−L) PTC offers much higher rates of reaction as well as better selectivities. The etherification or alkoxylation of p-chloronitrobenzene (PCNB) leads to industrially important intermediates, and the reactions can be conducted by using alkanols and alkali instead of hazardous metal alkoxides. This paper reports the n-butoxylation of PCNB with n-butyl alcohol and sodium hydroxide under L−L−L PTC, including kinetic modeling. There is considerable enhancement in the rate in comparison with the biphasic system.