Kinetics and mechanism of the action of 4 - tertiary butyl enolformaldehyde using alkali catalysts. Part I.

The rates of the individual reactions of 4- tertiarybutylphenol (4-TBP)- formaldehyde using various alkali catalysts have been measured under varying conditions of mole ratios of reactants with varying amounts of different catalysts at different temperatures. In all the experiments, the reactions were found to obey second order rate law. The experimental and the calculated value of km in the case of various catalysts at 80°C have been found to agree well within the experimental errors. Entropy of activation and the thermodynamic parameters for the reactions were calculated. The relative efficiences of the alkali catalysts followed the order Ca(OH)2 < Ba(OH)2 < NaOH < LiOH