Acetophenone
ACETOPHENONE, or PHENYL-METHYL KETONE, C8H8O or C6H5CO.CH3, in chemistry, the simplest representative of the class of mixed aliphatic-aromatic ketones. It can be prepared by distilling a mixture of dry calcium benzoate and acetate, Ca(O2CC6H5)2 + (CH3CO2)2Ca = 2CaCO3 + 2 C6H5CO.CH3, or by condensing benzene with acetyl chloride in the presence of anhydrous aluminium chloride (C. Friedel and J. M. Crafts), C6H6+CH3COCl == HCl + C6H5COCH3. It crystallizes in colourless plates melting at 20 deg. C. and bolling at 202 deg. C.; it is insoluble in water, but readily dissolves in the ordinary organic solvents. It is reduced by nascent hydrogen to the secondary alcohol C6H5.CH.OH.CH3 phenyl-methyl-carbinol, and on oxidation forms benzoic acid. On the addition of phenylhydrazine it gives a phenylhydrazone, and with hydroxylamine furnishes an
melting at 59 deg. C. This oxime undergoes a peculiar rearrangement when it is dissolved in ether and phosphorus pentachloride is added to the ethereal solution, the excess of ether distilled off and water added to the residue being converted into the isomeric substance acetanilide, C6H5NHCOCH3, a behaviour shown by many ketoximes and known as the Beckmann change (see Berichte, 1886, 19, p. 988). With sodium ethylate in ethyl acetate solution it forms the sodium derivative of benzoyl acetone, from which benzoyl acetone, C6H5.CO.CH2.CO.CH3, can be obtained by acidification with acetic acid. When heated with the halogens, acetophenone is substituted in the aliphatic portion of the nucleus; thus bromine gives phenacyl bromide, C6H6CO.CH2Br. Numerous derivatives of acetophenone have been prepared, one of the most important being orthoaminoacetophenone, NH2.C6H4.CO.CH3, which is obtained by boiling orthoaminophenylpropiolic acid with water. It is a thick yellowish oil bolling between 242 deg. C. and 250 deg. C. It condenses with acetone in the presence of caustic soda to a quinoline. Acetonyl-aeeto phenone, C6H5 . CO . CH2 . CH2. CO . CH3, is produced by condensing phenacyl bromide with sodium acetoacetate with subsequent elimination of carbon dioxide, and on dehydration gives aa-phenyl-methyl-furfurane. Oxazoles (q.v.) are produced on condensing phenacyl bromide with acid-amides (M. Lewy, Berichte, 1887, 20, p. 2578). K. L. Paal has also obtained pyrrol derivatives by condensing acetophenone-aceto- acetic-ester with substances of the type NH2R.
Note - this article incorporates content from Encyclopaedia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, (1910-1911)
