Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Company, Inc.

Naoto Osaki

Tetsuo Aoyama

Eiichi Yonemitsu

Shigeru Horie

Takeo Ikarashi

Kozo Sano

Mikio Goto

Yukiya Nakazato

Takeo Igarashi

A process for preparing a methylphenol from an alkylbenzene which process comprises oxidizing by molecular oxygen an alkylbenzene having one secondary alkyl group and 1-3 methyl groups of the general formula I ##STR1## where R is a secondary alkyl group and n is an integer of 1-3, acid-decomposing the oxidation product solution in the presence of an acid catalyst, stopping the acid-decomposition reaction before its completion, hydrogenating the acid decomposition product solution in the presence of a hydrogenation catalyst in the presence or absence of a solvent, and recovering the resulting methylphenol of the general formula II ##STR2## where n is an integer of 1-3 from the hydrogenation product solution.

Process for preparing a methylphenol

A process for preparing hydroperoxide by autoxidizing secondary alkyl group-substituted methylbenzenes in the presence of water comprises using as a catalyst a water-soluble chelate compound in which multidentate ligands are coordinated to at least one member selected from the class of cobalt, nickel, manganese, copper and iron.

Process for preparing hydroperoxide

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Tokyo, Japan

Naoto Osaki