Formaldehyde-diaromatic ether reaction products

A process for preparing a liquid formaldehydediaromatic ether reaction product which comprises heating to a temperature in the range from about 50.degree. to about 250.degree. a mixture of

• A. an aromatic compound selected from naphthalene alone or in combination with diphenyl oxide, diphenyl sulfide, biphenyl, their alkylated and/or halogenated derivatives, or mixtures thereof,
• B. formaldehyde,
• C. water, and
• D. an aliphatic hydroxy hydrocarbon compound having 0-4 ether oxygens, and not more than 4 carbon atoms between ether oxygens and at least one free hydroxyl group,
• in the presence of a catalytic amount of a strong acid catalyst wherein the amount of formaldehyde used ranges from about 1 to about 3 moles per mole of diaryl compound, the amount of water ranges from about 0.01 to about 2 moles per mole of diaryl compound and the amount of hydroxy hydrocarbon compound ranges from about 0.3 to about 10 moles per mole of diaryl compound.

A cogeneric liquid formaldehyde aromatic ether reaction product having the formulae

• R.sub.1 --A--CH.sub.2 --OCH.sub.2 --.sub.y A--.sub.x CH.sub.2 --OCH.sub.2 --.sub.y R.sub.3 (I)
• wherein each A is an independently selected aromatic radical having the formula ##SPC4##
• each R.sub.1 represents an independently selected radical from the group consisting of hydrogen, --CH.sub.2 --OCH.sub.2 --.sub.y R.sub.3 ;
• each R.sub.2 represents an independently selected radical consisting of R.sub.1, halogen or an alkyl group of 1 to 10 carbon atoms, R.sub.3 represents a radical selected from the group consisting of hydrogen, methoxy, ethoxy, propoxy or --A--H when y is 1 or greater than 1 and methoxy, ethoxy, propoxy and --A--H when y is 0;
• x represents an integer from 0 to 60;
• y represents an integer from 0 to 4;
• Z represents an integer from 0 to 2;
• and, B represents oxygen or sulfur, which may contain unreacted amounts up to 50% by weight of unreacted aromatic HAH of the total condensation product.