How do you convert benzene to naphthalene?

Answer 1

BA and napht. are both soluble in ether but not in water, so you dissolve them into an amount of ether. Naph. is non-polar and is difficult to make polar but BA has a polar carboxylic acid group on it. So, if you add a strong base like NaOH to the dissolved mixture in a separatory funnel, the OH will deprotonate the BA and the Na counter ion will form sodium benzoate which is soluble in water.

Separate the two in the funnel into an aqueous layer (the benzoate) and an organic layer (the napht.) The napht. contained in the ether layer is usually dried with some anhydrous salt like sodium or magnesium sulfate, filtered then the ether is evaporated to recover the napht.


Now, all you need to do is get the benzoate to go back to being insoluble now that it is dissolved in water. Do this using strong acid, HCl, which will neutralize the any remaining NaOH (to form water and NaCl) and will also reprotonate the BA making it once again insoluble in water.


Filter the BA out of the aqueous solution to recover it (vacuum filtration works well). Hope this helps,


M.V.C.

Answer 2

it is done by forming a derivative of naphthalene. Eg. adding picric acid (in methanol) to the mixture forming naphthalene picrate. the mixture of biphenyl and naphthalene picrate can be easily separated by filtering. residue: naphthalene picrate. filtrate: biphenyl. derivative is transformed back to original substance.

Answer 3

firstly benzene with HNO3 and H2SO4 and you get nitrobenzene.