Encyclopedia > Cumene process

  Article Content

Cumene process

The cumene process is used to prepare phenol (C6H5-OH) from benzene (C6H6) and propene[?] (C3H6).

Benzene and propene are compressed together to a pressure of 30 standard atmospheres and passed over a catalyst of phosphoric acid (H3PO4) at 250°C (482°F), giving isopropyl benzene or cumene (C6H5-CH(CH3)2). Cumene is oxidized in slightly basic conditions to give cumene hydroperoxide (C6H5C(CH3)2-O-O-H), which is hydrolysed in an acidic medium to give phenol and acetone (CH3-CO-CH3).



All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License

 
  Search Encyclopedia

Search over one million articles, find something about almost anything!
 
 
  
  Featured Article
Thomas a Kempis

... is more than all the wisdom of the schools and lifts the mind to perceive more of eternal truth in a moment of time than a student might learn in the schools in ten ...

 
 
 
This page was created in 23.3 ms