Selective water-based oxychlorination of phenol with hydrogen peroxide catalyzed by manganous sulfate

Abstract

An efficient method for the selective oxychlorination of phenol to 2,4-dichlorophenol catalyzed by manganous(ii) sulfate is developed using hydrogen chloride as a chlorinating source, hydrogen peroxide as an oxidant and water as a solvent. The catalyst has high activity and selectivity under mild conditions. The products are automatically isolated from aqueous solution, which also contains the catalyst at the end of the reaction, and hence product separation and catalyst recycling are both simple in this system. The performance of manganous(ii) sulfate with the oxidative chlorinating system HCl/H2O2 indicates that this is a promising synthetic method for the manufacture of various 2,4-dichlorophenol derivatives.