Preparation of glycidyl ethers

Abstract

A process for producing glycidyl ethers of phenols is described which comprises the steps of: (1) reacting by contacting, in liquid phase, a phenol with excess epichlorohydrin in the presence of a catalytic amount of tetrahydrocarbyl phosphonium bicarbonate salt, to thereby produce a coupled reaction product comprising the corresponding propylenechlorohydrin ether of said phenol; (2) devolatilizing said coupled reaction product to remove excess epichlorohydrin and volatile by-products; and (3) contacting the devolatilized reaction product from Step (2) with aqueous base, thereby converting the propylenechlorohydrin groups of the coupled reaction product to glycidyl ether groups. This process is particularly useful in preparing low molecular weight liquid epoxy resins by the reaction of epichlorohydrin with bisphenol A.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.