Patent ID: 8436055

Claim:
A method for preparing bisphenol comprising reacting phenol compounds with ketone and/or aldehyde, in the presence of a modified acidic ion-exchange resin which acts as a catalyst, wherein i) said modified acidic ion-exchange resin has at least one kind of cation selected from the group consisting of (A), (B), (C) and (D) ionically bound to an acidic functional group of an acidic ion-exchange resin, wherein the ratio of acidic functional groups modified with said cation is 0.1 to 50% of the total acidic functional groups of the acidic ion-exchange resin: (A) A cation represented by the formula (1): wherein P represents a phosphorus atom; and R 1 , R 2 , R 3 and R 4 independently represent a hydrogen atom, or an alkyl group, an aryl group or an alkoxy group, each of which contains 1 to 20 carbon atoms and may be substituted or unsubstituted and does not contain any of a mercapto group and a precursor thereof, provided that at least one of R 1 , R 2 , R 3 and R 4 is a group other than a hydrogen atom; (B) A cation represented by the formula (2): wherein N represents a nitrogen atom; and R 5 , R 6 , R 7 and R 8 independently represent an alkyl group or an aryl group, each of which contains 1 to 20 carbon atoms and may be substituted or unsubstituted and does not contain any of a mercapto group, a precursor thereof and an amide bond; (C) A cation represented by the formula (3): wherein P represents a phosphorus atom; and R 9 , R 10 , R 11 , R 12 , R 13 and R 14 independently represent a hydrogen atom, or an alkyl group, an aryl group or an alkoxy group, each of which contains 1 to 20 carbon atoms and may be substituted or unsubstituted and does not contain any of a mercapto group, a precursor thereof and an amide bond, provided that at least one of R 9 , R 10 , R 11 , R 12 , R 13 and R 14 is a group other than a hydrogen atom; and (D) A cation which does not contain any of a mercapto group, a precursor thereof and an amide bond, wherein said cation is a N-methylpyridinium salt, a N-cetylpyridinium salt, a N-dodecylpyridinium salt, a N-methylquinolinium salt or a N-ethylquinolinium salt, and ii-a) at least one compound containing a mercapto group is added to the mixture of reaction raw materials, wherein the amount of said compound is in the range of 100 ppm by weight to 5% by weight of the mixture, and/or ii-b) a nitrogen-containing compound containing a mercapto group, which is different from the compound containing a mercapto group of ii-a), further ionically binds to an acidic functional group of the acidic ion-exchange resin, wherein the ratio of acidic functional groups binding to said compound is 0.5 to 70% of the total acidic functional groups of the acidic ion-exchange resin.