Patent ID: 7781622

Claim:
A process for direct hydroxylation of aromatic hydrocarbons which comprises reacting aromatic hydrocarbon with hydrogen peroxide with a molar ratio of aromatic hydrocarbon to hydrogen peroxide in the range 1:0.05 to 1:10 in a polar solvent with a weight ratio of aromatic hydrocarbon to solvent in the range 1:3 to 1:20, in the presence of heterogeneous catalyst selected from a group consisting of vanadium phthalocyanine and phenoxy-, nitro-, chloro-, and amino-substituted vanadiyl phthalocyanine, at a temperature in the range of 25-100° C., for a period 1-10 hrs in a batch or continuous manner, removing the catalyst from the above said reaction mixture, followed by fractional distillation of the resultant filtrate to recover the unreacted aromatics and obtaining the desired hydroxyl aromatics.