Nissan Chemical Industries Limited

Shigeru Futamura

Norio Tanaka

Shinichiro Takigawa

Shuzo Shinke

Yoshio Kamiya

A process for producing substituted benzoic acids represented by General Formula II: ##STR1## wherein Q represents a member selected from the group consisting of hydrogen, halogen atoms, --CN, --NO.sub.2, --COOH, --COOR.sub.1, --COR.sub.1, --SR.sub.1, --SO.sub.2 R.sub.1 and --OR.sub.2 ; and Y and Z each represents a member selected from the group consisting of halogen atoms, --CN, --NO.sub.2, --COOH, --COOR.sub.1, --COR.sub.1, --SR.sub.1, --SO.sub.2 R.sub.1 and --OR.sub.2 (in which R.sub.1 represents an alkyl group containing 1 to 10 carbon atoms; and R.sub.2 represents an alkyl group containing 1 to 10 carbon atoms or a phenyl group which may be substituted), which comprises oxidizing a substituted toluene represented by General Formula I: ##STR2## wherein W represents a member selected from the group consisting of hydrogen, halogen atoms, --CH.sub.3, --CN, --NO.sub.2, --COOH, --COOR.sub.1, --COR.sub.1, --SR.sub.1, --SO.sub.2 R.sub.1 and --OR.sub.2 ; and Y and Z have the same meanings as defined above with an oxygen-containing gas in the presence of a metal compound catalyst.

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Chiba, Japan

Shigeru Futamura