DFliyerz
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Possible route to Toluene from Xylene
In many places, people can get mixed xylenes easily but can't get toluene. While looking around, I found some information that may lead to a route
from xylenes to toluene. In this prep, nitric acid is used under fairly mild conditions to oxidize o-xylene to o-toluic (methylbenzoic) acid. Assuming that a similar
procedure could be used on the other xylene isomers, and that toluic acid could be decarboxylated as a salt or with some other base, this could
provide a fairly inexpensive route to toluene from xylene.
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macckone
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You can definitely oxidize xylene to mixed carboxylic acids and then decarboxylate. You can also get toluene from gasoline via distillation. You can
also use disproportionation with aluminum chloride to yield benzene, toluene and mesitylene. Many fuel injector cleaners and octane boosters are very
high in toluene. If you can't distill gasoline, chances are you will have a problem with the more complex reactions.
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Deathunter88
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Quote: Originally posted by macckone  | | You can definitely oxidize xylene to mixed carboxylic acids and then decarboxylate. You can also get toluene from gasoline via distillation. You can
also use disproportionation with aluminum chloride to yield benzene, toluene and mesitylene. Many fuel injector cleaners and octane boosters are very
high in toluene. If you can't distill gasoline, chances are you will have a problem with the more complex reactions. |
I don't know about you, but distilling 10 liters of gasoline just to get 500ml of toluene doesn't sound very fun. (concentration of toluene in
gasoline is about 5%) It's also probably very hard to get clean separation due to the other junk in gasoline.
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