Preparation and capillary gas chromatography of polymethyl- and ethylmethylbiphenyls and polymethyldiphenylmethanes

Trimethyl-, tetramethyl-, and ethylmethylbiphenyls with the alkyl groups at one aromatic ring have been prepared by the Gomberg reaction and identified by capillary gas chromatography. The products are either chemical individua or mixtures of up to three isomers depending on choice of the aromatic hydrocarbon. The ethylmethylbiphenyls have been prepared as mixed standards only. Most aromatic hydrocarbons used in the Gomberg reaction have been prepared by combination of rectification and sulphonation procedures. The HMO method has been used for calculation of the values of the radical superdelocalizabilities at individual centres of the 1,2,4- and 1,2,3-trimethylbenzene molecules which have been compared with product composition of the Gomberg reactions of these hydrocarbons. Reactivities of the aromatic substrates used in the Gomberg reaction have been compared by the competition technique. Capillary gas chromatography using three columns wetted with non-polar , medium, and polar stationary phases has been used to determine the Kovats indexes of the hydrocarbons prepared and parameters of the linear dependences IApiez.L = k.Istat.phase(2) + q (with the corresponding correlation coefficients). From the elution data of the isomeric methyl- and ethylbiphenyls the increments have been derived for methyl and ethyl groups, and possibility of prediction and assessment of the Kováts indexes of polyalkybiphenyls and dimethyldiphenylmethanes is discussed.