The zeolite mediated isomerization of allyl phenyl ether

Abstract

Allyl phenyl ether is an important starting material in organic synthesis that has several applications in agrochemical industry. The green transformation of allyl phenyl ether assisted by heterogeneous catalyst is an attractive topic for an industrial process. In this report, we investigated the isomerization of allyl phenyl ether by heating it in zeolite H-ZSM-5 and Na-ZSM-5. The conversion of allyl phenyl ether (neat) in H-ZSM-5 was 67% which produced 40% of 2-allylphenol, 17% of 2-methyldihydrobenzofuran, and other product (4:1.7:1), while in Na-ZSM-5 produced exclusively 2-allylphenol with 52% conversion. These results showed that zeolite properties can be tuned to give a selective transformation by substitution of metal ion into the zeolite interior.