Doing a presentation. Need some pointers.

[Bladibla]

Hi

I'm currently starting to prepare a 15 min preparation on a chemistry topic.

The topic I have been chosen to do is ''New methods of functionalizing armonatic rings; New methods for the constructing of C-O bonds to functionalize aromatic rings''

Does anyone have some pointers to this topic? I am not entirely sure of where to get resources for current researches in chemistry so I'm in a bit of a dark corner when it comes to obtaining information for this project..

Thanks.

 

[chemisttree]

You probably won't find information by searching the literature using "''New methods of functionalizing armonatic rings; New methods for the constructing of C-O bonds to functionalize aromatic rings". One way to look at this problem is to note that it is an oxidation reaction. The simplest compound in this series would be phenol. Try searching for new methods to manufacture phenol. I seem to remember that C&E News had a review about some new chemistry sometime in the last 3 1/2 years (not in 2007, though). Start by trying to find the article in C&E News then by looking at a Kirk-Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology, specifically the chapter dealing with phenol. An excerpt I found online has this:

Phenol (hydroxybenzene) is a commercially important derivative of benzene. It is the primary feedstock for the production of epoxy resins and polycarbonates, phenolic resins and molding compounds, caprolactam, aniline, and other chemical derivatives. More than 95% of the phenol consumed is produced by the cumene peroxidation process.

So you see that this is a very important process but it depends on the manufacture of cumene (probably via a Friedel-Crafts alkylation process) and thus the economics of cumene manufacture as well. These two methods of manufacture are no doubt linked
both physically and economically and the demand/price of one drives the other. Finding a way to decouple the economics of phenol production from the vagaries of cumene production would seem a logical motivation for novel methods of aromatic C-O formation.

Hope it is helpful.