Nippon Steel Chemical Co., Ltd.

Kunio Wada

Tadanori Hara

Masakazu Takeuchi

Noboru Daito

Pyromellitic dianhydride, useful as raw material for the manufacture of polyimides, is prepared in high yield and purity by the reaction of benzene derivatives such as ethylbenzene, diethylbenzenes, and triethylbenzenes with an ethylating agent in the presence of a Friedel-Crafts catalyst, the separation of tetraethylbenzenes from the reaction products by distillation, the separation of 1,2,4,5-tetraethylbenzene from other tetraethyl benzenes by differential centrifugal precipitation at -10 to -30 degrees Celsius, and the catalytic vapor-phase oxidation of tetraethyl benzenes, using a catalyst containing vanadium pentoxide and titanium dioxide.

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Fukuoka, Japan

Kunio Wada