| Abstract: | Previous work has shown that the intermediates in the formation of resins from phenol and formaldehyde— the 2,2′-, 2,4′- and 4,4′-dihydroxydiphenylmethanes can only be isolated from the reaction products in small yields and with difficulty. It is now shown that after distillation of excess phenol and formaldehyde from the initial reaction mass at atmospheric pressure, a further high-temperature steam distillation yields approximately 60% of the remaining product as white crystalline dihydroxydiphenylmethanes, 20% as triphenylols varying from hard crystalline masses to slowly crystallising oils, and 20% of fusible and soluble novolac resin of high melting point. Some lens-shaped crystals were also obtained. |
