Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation

Mitsubishi Petrochemical Company Limited

Shoichi Seo

Hiroshi Iwane

Makoto Takeda

Hidekazu Miyagi

Masaki Saito

Takahiro Yoneyama

Hiroshi Taniguchi

Noriko Wada

Shiroh Inui

Nobuyoshi Maruyama

Kazuaki Isomura

Shin Kawano

Satoshi Imada

The present invention relates to a method of producing an aromatic carbonate by reacting an aromatic hydroxy compound, carbon monoxide and oxygen using as a catalyst a specified catalyst system containing palladium and cerium compounds. Specifically, the present invention relates to a method of producing an aromatic carbonate by reacting an aromatic hydroxy compound, carbon monoxide and oxygen in the presence of a catalyst containing the following compounds:

Method of producing aromatic carbonate

An optically active compound represented by formula (I): ##STR1## wherein R.sup.1 represents an alkyl group having from 6 to 18 carbon atoms or an alkoxy group having from 6 to 18 carbon atoms; A represents ##STR2## or ##STR3## wherein ring ##STR4## represents a nitrogen-containing hetero-aromatic ring; n and m each represents 0 or 1; R.sup.2 represents an alkyl group having from 1 to 12 carbon atoms; and C* is an asymmetric carbon atom. The compound of formula (I) exhibits excellent physicochemical stability, a low temperature range for the chiral smectic C phase when used either alone or in combination with other compounds, and a rapid response.

Optically active compound

Growing community of inventors

Ibaraki, Japan

Shoichi Seo