Oxidation of anthracene to anthraquinone in liquid‐phase with an air/oxygen/nitric acid system

Abstract

Abstract Oxidation of anthracene to anthraquinone by air/oxygen in the presence of small amounts of nitric acid was studied in the liquid phase. The effects of various process variables (e.g. temperature, flow rate, amount of nitric acid and solvent substrate ratio) were investigated. An attempt was made to minimise the amount of nitric acid. The optimum conversions of anthracene into anthraquinone free from nitro compounds, using air and oxygen was found to be 81.7 and 96.2% respectively with corresponding purities of 98.5% and 99.6%.