Synthesis and characterization of photochromic 5-CHLORO-4,6DIMETHYL-2-Hydroxybenzaldehyde

Abstract

o-Akyl aromatic aldehydes undergo photochromism through ᵞ- hydrogen abstraction upon UV irradiation in the solid state to give colored enols. The stability of the photo-enols can be increased in the presence of hydrogen bonding. In this research 4-chloro-3,5-xylenol was used as the starting material to synthesize an ο-alkyl aromatic aldehyde, which will be photochromic in the solid state with a higher stability . Two methods were carried out to synthesize the above aldehyde. The analytical techniques, NMR, FT-IR, UV-Visible and XRD used to characterize the products revealed that about 20% yield was obtained via the method involving the Reimer Tiemann reaction.