Daicel Chemical Industries, Ltd.

Masahiko Terada

Yasutaka Ishii

Naruhisa Hirai

Naruhisa Hiral

A catalyst of the invention includes an imide compound having a N-substituted cyclic imide skeleton represented by following Formula (I): wherein R is a hydroxyl-protecting group. Preferred R is a hydrolyzable protecting group. R may be a group obtained from an acid by eliminating an OH group therefrom. Such acids include, for example, carboxylic acids, sulfonic acids, carbonic acid, carbamic acid, sulfuric acid, nitric acid, phosphoric acids and boric acids. The catalyst may include the imide compound and a metallic compound in combination. In the presence of the catalyst, (A) a compound capable of forming a radical is allowed to react with (B) a radical scavenging compound and thereby yields an addition or substitution reaction product of the compound (A) and the compound (B) or a derivative thereof. This catalyst can produce an organic compound with a high selectivity in a high yield as a result of, for example, an addition or substitution reaction under mild conditions.

Catalyst comprising N-substituted cyclic imide compound and process for producing organic compounds using the catalyst

A method of this invention produces an aromatic carboxylic acid, by oxidizing an aromatic compound B with oxygen in the presence of a catalytic nitrogen-containing cyclic compound A to thereby yield a corresponding aromatic carboxylic acid, the aromatic compound B having one or more hydrocarbon groups alone as substituents on its aromatic ring, and the catalytic nitrogen-containing cyclic compound A having a skeleton represented by following Formula (i): wherein X represents oxygen atom or an &#x2014;OR group, and wherein R represents hydrogen atom or a hydroxyl-protecting group, as a constitutive member of its ring. The method includes the step of carrying out a reaction at a concentration of the aromatic compound B in the reaction system of 3.0 percent by weight or less, while continuously feeding the catalytic nitrogen-containing cyclic compound A, the aromatic compound B, a reaction solvent, and oxygen to a reactor and continuously extracting a reaction mixture from the reactor. This method can produce aromatic carboxylic acids with industrially good productivity without the need for special reaction facilities and without undergoing many steps.

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Himeji, Japan

Masahiko Terada