METHOD FOR PRODUCING ALPHA-(P-ISOBUTYLPHENYL)PROPIONIC ACID

Abstract: A method for producing α-(p-isobutylphenyl)propionic acid with a high selectivity and high purity. The method is characterized in that α-(p-isobutylphenyl)propionaldehyde is oxidized at temperatures not higher than -12°C in the presence of an acid using a hypohalogenite. The acid is at least an inorganic acid selected from the group consisting of sulfuric acid, phosphoric acid and hydrochloric acid and the hypohalogenite is sodium salts, potassium salts or calcium salts of hypochlorous acid or hypobromous acid.

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION (1) Field of the Invention This invention relates to a method for producing α-(p-isobutylphenyl)propionic acid. More particularly, the invention relates to a method for producing α-(p-isobutyl­ phenyl)propionic acid by oxidizing α-(p-isobutylphenyl)­ propionaldehyde with a hypohalogenite under specific conditions. (2) Description of the Prior Art The α-(p-isobutylphenyl)propionic acid (IPA) prepared according to the method of the present invention is known as a useful medicine for the relief of pain, fever and inflammation with little adverse reaction. There are proposed many kinds of methods for producing IPA by oxidizing α-(p-isobutylphenyl)propionaldehyde (IPN) with various oxidizing agents. For example, silver compounds are used as oxidizing agents in the methods disclosed in U.S. Patent No. 3,965,161, French Patent No. 1,545,270, and Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 58-35140; permanganates are used in the methods disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication Nos. 51-100042, 51-101949 and 52-97930; and oxidizing agents such as chromic acid, peracids, hydrogen peroxide and chlorites are used in the method disclosed in British Patent Nos. 1,549,140 and 2,004,543 and Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 51-10042. These methods are, however, not satisfactory in view of industrial working, because the selectivity relative to the intended IPA is low or expensive substances must be used as oxidizing agents. The inventors of this application have carried out extensive studies on the oxidation using the salts of hypohalogenous acids. As a result, it was found that the selectivity to aimed products can be much improved by selecting specific reaction conditions, and that, by selecting an acid to coexist, the isolation of intended products can be made easy, thereby accomplishing the present invention. BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is, therefore, the primary object of the present invention to provide an improved method for producing α-(p-isobutylphenyl)propionic acid. Another object of the invention is to provide a method for producing α-(p-isobutylphenyl)propionic acid in which the selectivity to the product is high and the isolation of the product is quite easy. In accordance with the method of the present invention, α-(p-isobutylphenyl)propionic acid is prepared by oxidizing α-(p-isobutylphenyl)propionaldehyde using a hypohalogenous acid salt (hypohalogenite) in the presence of an acid at reaction temperatures of -12°C or below. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING These and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following description taken in connection with the accompanying drawing in which: Fig. 1 is a graphic chart showing the relationship between reaction temperatures and molar ratios of reaction products (the aimed product/the by-product). DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION In the method of the present invention, hypohalogenites are used, which are exemplified by sodium hypochlorite, potassium hypochlorite, calcium hypochlorite, sodium hypobromite, and potassium hypobromite. These hypo­ halogenites can be used in the form of either solid salts themselves or aqueous solutions of them. In the oxidation reaction according to the present invention, the hypohalogenite serves as an oxidizing agent almost quantitatively to give an intended product with a high selectivity. Accordingly, it is sufficient that the quantity of hypohalogenite used is almost the same in moles as the moles of IPN. Even when a quantity less than equimolar amount of hypohalogenite is used, there is no problem because an aimed product and unreacted IPN can be recovered without difficulty. In view of process efficiency, however, it is desirable that more than 0.9 molar equivalent is used. When hypohalogenite is used in large excess, the remaining hypohalogenite that was not consumed for oxidation causes halogenation of the final product to reduce sometimes its purity. Therefore, it is preferable that the quantity of hypohalogenite is less than 2 moles, more preferably less than 1.5 moles, to one mole of IPN. In the present invention, the reaction temperature is an important factor which has influence on selectivity and yield of the reaction. The oxidation with hypohalogenite can proceed smoothly irrespective of reaction temperatures giving a high reaction rate of 99 to 100%. At higher reaction temperatures, much p-isobutylacetophenone (BAP) is by-produced. Meanwhile, the molar ratio IPA/BAP, which shows the selectivity between the intended IPA and by-product BAP, changes critically near the reaction temperature of -12°C. That is, if a reaction temperature is lowered below -12°C, the selectivity to IPA rises abruptly. Accordingly, desirable reaction temperatures are not higher than -12°C, and preferably lower than -15°C. In spite of the high value in the reaction rate irrespective of temperatures, the fact that the molar ratio of IPA/BAP changes critically is considered to be related to oxidation reaction mechanism itself, however, the detailed reason for this fact is not understood. Such the critical change in the molar ratio is a novel concept that has been found out for the first time in the present invention. There is observed no lower limit of the reaction temperature, however, it may be -50°C in practice, because, when an aqueous solution of hypohalogenite is used, the reaction will take longer time due to the coagulation of the aqueous solution. The reaction is carried out in the presence of an acid. Even though organic acids such as acetic acid can be used, preferable acids are inorganic acids as protonic acids such as sulfuric acid, phosphoric acid and hydrochloric acid. These acids can be employed either singly or in combination of two or more kinds. The quantity of the inorganic acid to be used is not especially limited, that is, the amount to make the reaction system neutral to acidic is sufficient. In general cases, 0.1 mole or more, preferably more than 0.2 mole of inorganic acid is used to 1 mole of hypohalogenite. However, it is not necessary to use excess amount of the acid and, in practice, the upper limit of the inorganic acid is 50 times or less moles relative to the moles of hypohalogenite. As for the reaction mixture after oxidation, it comprises the main components of IPA as the aimed product, BAP as a by-product and an acid as a catalyst, and the residue of the oxidizing agent. Incidentally, because the aimed product IPA is an organic acid, in the case that the used acid catalyst is an organic acid such as acetic acid, at least a part of the acetic acid is dissolved in the IPA. Though the by-product BAP is also dissolved in IPA, the quantity of BAP is quite small in the present invention as described above, and the separation of BAP is easy which is facilitated by the fact that BAP is not an acid. Accordingly, in order to obtain highly pure IPA at a high yield without loss, the separation of the acid as a catalyst from the IPA is important. When an inorganic acid is used as the coexisting acid, the separation of the acid from IPA can be made easy because it is possible to take the advantage of the differences in properties between organic acids and inorganic acids. More particularly, when an inorganic acid is used, the separation of the acid from the product IPA is quite easy, which fact much improves the efficiency in industrial practice. That is, the inorganic acids used in the method of the invention are water-soluble but they are insoluble to ordinary organic solvents. Accordingly, IPA can be easily separated from the acids by extraction with organic solvents or by washing with water. Even when the acid remains in the finally obtained IPA crystals, the acid can be easily removed by washing the product with water. Meanwhile, organic acids such as acetic acid are water-soluble and also soluble to most of organic solvents. Therefore, acetic acid cannot be removed from IPA by simple extraction or water-washing. When IPA is rinsed with water in order to remove the acetic acid remaining in the finally obtained IPA crystals, the IPA dissolves into the acetic acid-water solution system, which fact causes the difficulty and the loss in the recovering of IPA. Therefore, in industrial practice, preferable acids used in the method of the invention are inorganic acids that are soluble in water and insoluble in organic solvents used for the extraction with the solvents. In the oxidation, a solvent which is inert to the reaction, which neither coagulates nor freezes at lower temperatures and which has sufficient solubility to IPA, can be used. Such the solvents are exemplified by water miscible solvents of ketones such as acetone and methyl ethyl ketone, ethers such as tetrahydrofuran, dioxane and diglyme, and alcohols such as methanol, ethanol and ethylene glycol; and water immiscible solvents of paraffins such as hexane, naphthenes such as cyclohexane, and aromatic hydrocarbons such as benzene and toluene. Among them, water miscible solvents produce more desirable results. After the reaction, the reaction medium is removed under reduced pressure if necessary, and extraction of reaction mixture is done using aqueous alkali or an organic solvent to obtain IPA. As the solvents for extraction, ordinary organic solvents such as chloroform and ether can be employed. These organic solvents generally dissolve organic acids but they hardly dissolve inorganic acids. After the extraction, the extraction solvent is removed by distillation or evaporation of the conventional method and re-crystallization is then carried out using an adequate solvent such as n-heptane to obtain a highly pure IPA at a high yield. As described above, in the method of the present invention, α-(p-isobutylphenyl)propionic acid (IPA) can be prepared by oxidizing α-(p-isobutylphenyl)propionaldehyde (IPN) in the presence of a specific acid and under a specific condition, in which the treatment of the product after reaction is easy and the rate of reaction is not lower than 99% with a high selectivity. The present invention will be described in more detail with reference to several experiments. Experiment 1 To several sets of 200 ml flasks each with a stirrer were respectively added 10 g (53 mmol) of IPN, 17 g of phosphoric acid and 30 ml of a solvent, acetone. They were cooled to the respective temperatures that are shown in Fig. 1. At each temperature, 42.8 g of 10% aqueous solution of sodium hypochlorite (58 mmol as sodium hypochlorite) was added dropwise slowly. After the dropwise addition, the reaction was continued for further 1 hour. After the reaction, the oily layer was analyzed by liquid chromatography to determine the reaction rate and the molar ratio of IPA/BAP. The reaction rates were as high as 98 to 100% at the respective reaction temperatures. As the indication of selectivities to the reaction product, the molar ratios of IPA/BAP were plotted on Fig. 1. As will be understood from the chart, the molar ratio of IPA/BAP changes critically in the reaction temperature range of -10 to -12°C. This shows that the selectivity to the product IPA is markedly improved in the reaction temperature range of -12°C and below. - Isolation of IPA - In the above reaction procedure, the reaction product obtained at the reaction temperature of -15°C was taken. The solvent, acetone, was removed under a reduced pressure of 20 mmHg at 50°C. Extraction was done three times using each 50 ml of chloroform. The chloroform was removed by reduced pressure evaporation to obtain 10.3 g of pale yellow crude crystal. This was re-crystallized by n-heptane to obtain white crystal. This had a melting point of 76-77°C which value was the same as that of a standard sample. Experiment 2 Reaction was carried out at -15°C in the like manner as Experiment 1 except that 7.2 g of the acetic acid was used in place of the phosphoric acid. It was understood by liquid chromatographic analysis of the product that the rate of reaction was 98%. and the selectivity on the molar ratio of IPA/BAP was 70. - Isolation of IPA - Then, in the like manner as Experiment 1, white crystal was isolated. This had apparently the odor of acetic acid and the melting point thereof was 71-74°C. It was thus understood that the product in this Experiment requires additional refining step or steps. Experiments 3 and 4 Reactions were carried out at -15°C in the like manner as Experiment 1 except that 35% hydrochloric acid and sulfuric acid were used in place of the phosphoric acid. The results are shown in the following Table 1. After the reaction, crystalline products were isolated from reaction mixtures in the like manner as Experiment 1, where pure crystals were obtained by simple processing. Experiment 5 IPN was oxidized at -15°C in the like manner as Experiment 1 except that 133 g of 5% aqueous solution of sodium hypochlorite (56 mmol as sodium hypochlorite) was used. The rate of reaction was 98%. IPA was isolated from the obtained reaction product in the like manner as Experiment 1 to obtain white crystal having a melting point of 76-77°C.

Claims: 1. A method for producing α-(p-isobutylphenyl) propionic acid which is characterized in that α-(p-isobutylphenyl)-­ propionaldehyde is oxidized with the use of a hypohalo­ genite at temperatures not higher than -12°C in the pre­ sence of an acid. 2. The method for producing α-(p-isobutylphenyl)-­ propionic acid of claim 1, wherein said acid is an inorganic acid. 3. The method for producing α-(p-isobutylphenyl) propionic acid of claim 2, wherein said inorganic acid is at least one member selected from the group consisting of sulfuric acid, phosphoric acid and hydrochloric acid. 4. The method for producing α-(p-isobutylphenyl)-­ propionic acid of any of the claims 1 to 3, wherein said temperatures are in the range of -15°C to -50°C. 5. The method for producing α-(p-isobutylphenyl)-­ propionic acid of any of the claims 1 to 4, wherein said hypohalogenite is at least one member selected from the group consisting of sodium salts, potassium salts and cal­ cium salts of hypochlorous acid and hypobromous acid.

Inventors: MATSUMURA, YASUO, SHIMIZU, ISOO
Applicants: NIPPON PETROCHEMICALS COMPANY, LIMITED
Application year: 1985
Main classification: C07C57
IPC codes: C07C51