Study On The Separation Of Meta-and Para-Cresol

Cresol is a isomer mixture that include o-cresol,m-cresol and p-cresol. Directsynthesizing m-cresol is hard and unvalued in the industry, so we use separationmethod to manufacture m-cresol .this paper review the usage of m-cresol and p-cresolin the national economic realm and separation and purification process of m-cresoland p-cresol by physical –chemical method and chemical method . The boiling pointof m-cresol and p-cresol is close, so it is hard to separate them. The boiling point ofalkyl product of m-cresol and p-cresol is very different , so we prepare alkyl productof m-cresol and p-cresol, then separate them and get BHT(2,6-ditetrabutyl-p-cresol)and 4,6-ditetrabutyl-m-cresol. The former is a chemical product;the later, usingdealkylation and fractional distillation, get pure m-cresol.