Study on the Liquid Phase Reaction of Ozone with Ethylbenzene and Its Derivatives

This work deals with the investigation of the reactions of ethylbenzene and its derivatives with ozone in a solution of glacial acetic acid. The products and kinetic features of oxidation were studied, the kinetic parameters of the reactions were found, and the mechanism of ozonation in the liquid phase was proposed. The influence of deactivating substituents (-Br, -NO2) in the aromatic ring on the selectivity of the side chain oxidation of the substrate was established. It is shown that the main direction of ethylbenzene oxidation is ozonolysis with the formation of aliphatic compounds, while the ozonation of p-bromomethylbenzene and p-nitroethylbenzene significantly increases the selectivity of the side chain oxidation of the substrate, and the corresponding acetophenones become the main products of the reaction. The kinetics of the reaction were studied using gas chromatography and spectrophotometry, measuring the optical density of the gas flow in the UV region.