Nippon Fine Chemical Co., Ltd.

Yoko Hida

Tutomu Yamaguchi

Isamu Arai

Process for producing aromatic disulfides

A process for the preparation of an aromatic thiophenol represented by the formula (I): Y &mdash;Ar&mdash;(SH) (I), wherein Ar represents an aromatic hydrocarbon; Y represents at least one substituent bonded to a carbon atom constituting the aromatic ring of Ar, which substituent is selected from the group consisting of halogen, nitro, nitrile, sulfone, sulfamoyl and hydrocarbylsulfonyl groups; m is an integer of 1 or more; and n is an integer of 1 or more, which comprises (a) reacting an aromatic thioether represented by the formula (II): Y &mdash;Ar&mdash;(SR) (II), wherein R represents a monovalent secondary or tertiary hydrocarbyl, or a monovalent primary hydrocarbyl group represented by the formula: &mdash;CH &mdash;R or &mdash;CH &mdash;CR &boxH;C (R ) , wherein R represents a monovalent aromatic ring group optionally substituted by a monovalent hydrocarbyl group, and each of R is the same or different from each other and represents hydrogen or a monovalent hydrocarbyl group, with (A) a Lewis acid in the presence of a solvent or with a protonic acid, provided that when (A) is a protonic acid, R is not a primary hydrocarbyl group, and (b) optionally hydrolyzing the reaction product from step (a).

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Toda, Japan

Yoko Hida