• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.303-306
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• 2018

Methyl 4-formylbenzoate (MFB), a by-product of the DMT production process, which has been disposed, was used as a starting material for the synthesis of six new fluorescent whitening agent's candidates with 4,4'-di((E)-styryl)-1,1'-biphenyl skeleton attached with an aromatic ester, the same as that of the commercial product family. All candidates were synthesized by the reaction of MFB, and its derivatives with tetraethyl biphenyl-4,4'-diylbis(methylene)diphosphonate using Wittig-Horner reaction. UV spectra for all candidates were recorded and the data were used for calculating the molar absorptivity in order to confirm the usability as a fluorescent whitening agent. All of them showed overall molar extinction coefficients (log ${\varepsilon}$ 4.59~5.00) similar to those of conventional commercial products (log ${\varepsilon}$ 4.85). In particular, compounds 16 and 17 having a dimethoxyphenyl group exhibited a molar extinction coefficient superior to those of conventional commercial products, and thus a field testing for commercialization will be conducted.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.294-298
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• 2017

Six new fluorescent whitening agent's candidates with 4,4'-di((E)-styryl)-1,1'-biphenyl skeleton which is the same as that of Uvitex FP family were synthesized using methyl 4-formylbenzoate (MFB) as a starting material. MFB has been disposed as a by-product of dimethyl terephthalate (DMT) production process. Six candidates were synthesized by the reaction of MFB, and its derivatives with tetraethyl biphenyl-4,4'-diylbis(methylene)diphosphonate (3) using Wittig-Horner reaction. A series of UV spectra were recorded and the results were used for estimating molar absorptivities of each candidates in order to find their potential application as fluorescent whitening agents. Considering the molar absorptivity (log ${\varepsilon}$ 3.95~2.60) for all candidates was lower than that of the commercial Uvitex FP 127 (log ${\varepsilon}$ 4.85), it was concluded that they are not suitable for fluorescent whitening agent applications.