ABSTRACT
The hydrogenation of p-phenylphenol is a consecutive and parallel complex reaction. Owing to the difference in the hydrogenation ability of the two benzene rings in pphenylphenol, the hydrogenation products contained several structural isomers, which can not be identified by normal analytical method. However, the reaction mixture was effectively separated and identified by GC-FTIR technique. According to the characteristic wave numbers of benzene ring substituted at different positions, the main product was confirmed to be p-cyclohexylphenol, and the two typical by-products were p-phenylcyclohexanol and p-cyclohexylcyclohexanol, respectively. Each product has several stereo-isomers. GC-MS, melting point measurement and NMR proved the accuracy of GC-FTIR results, indicating that GC-IR is an useful and rapid method for analyzing structural isomers of organic compounds.
