Acta Chimica Slovaca (ACS) publishes papers on fundamental and applied aspects of chemistry, biochemistry, chemical technology, chemical engineering and process control, biotechnology and food technology. Welcome are also topics which include chemical aspects of materials, physical chemistry and chemical physics, analytical chemistry, macromolecular chemistry and biomedical engineering.

Study of (all-rac)-α-tocopherol synthesis from trimethylhydroquinone and isophytol at the presence of solid catalysts

Juraj Gömöry, Milan Králik a, Alexander Kaszonyi * b, Dušan Mravec c

Zentiva, a.s., Nitrianska 100, 920 27 Hlohovec
a VUCHT j.s.c., Research Institute of Chemical Technology, Nobelova 34, 836 03 Bratislava, Slovak Republic
b Department of Organic Technology, Slovak University of Technology, Radlinského 9,812 37 Bratislava
c Department of Organic Technology, Slovak University of Technology, Radlinského 9,812 37 Bratislava

E-mail: * alexander.kaszonyi@stuba.sk

Abstract: The cyclocondensation of trimethylhydroquinone and isophytol to (all rac)-α-tocopherol was studied at the presence of solid catalyst and ZnCl2. The obtained results confirm that the catalytic activity of alumina and silica base catalysts is satisfactory only at the presence of ZnCl2. The strongly acidic aluminosilicates catalyze not only the cyclocondensation of trimethylhydroquinone and isophytol to (all rac)-α-tocopherol but also the formation of unacceptable side products.

Keywords: (all rac)-α-tocopherol, trimethylhydroquinone, isophytol, ZnCl2, solid catalyst

Full paper in Portable Document Format: acs_0073.pdf

Acta Chimica Slovaca, Vol. 3, No. 2, 2010, pp. 110—121