Iron-catalyzed synthesis of alkyl esters of benzoic acid from benzene and its derivatives with use of CCl₄ – alcohol reagent system

The aim of this work is to develop a one-stage catalytic method for the preparation of alkyl esters of benzoic acid by the direct reaction of benzene and its derivatives with alcohols and halogenmethanes. We found that the reaction of benzene, phenol, and anisole with CCl4 and alcohol under the action of the [Fe] –acetylacetone catalyst leads to the formation of practically important esters of alkyl benzoates, as well as salicylic and p-hydroxybenzoic acids. The advantage of the developed method for the synthesis of esters of benzoic acid is the availability and low cost of the main starting reagents - benzene, phenol, anisole, CCl4, alcohols and iron, cost reduction and simplification of technology, moderate reaction time (6 h), relatively low temperature, one-step process, possibility the use of this reaction in an industrial environment (scaling).