| Abstract: | Liquid phase Friedel‐Crafts alkylation of benzene with benzyl chloride was carried out over various ferrites viz. CuFe2O4, NiFe2O4, CoFe2O4, ZnFe2O4, and MgFe2O4. Among the various ferrites ZnFe2O4 showed the highest activity. These ferrites were prepared by co‐precipitation technique. The effect of variation of catalyst, speed of agitation and reaction temperature has been studied. Benzylation of other substrates such as toluene, anisole and chlorobenzene was also studied. The catalyst ZnFe2O4 was found to be reusable. The acid base properties of the catalyst were studied by cyclohexanol dehydration reaction and the data was correlated with activity. |
