Question

will we get benzyl alcohol on reacting benzyl chloride with aqueous KOH at 623K and 300 atm?

Answer 1

1. The conditions 623 K and 300 atm are required to convert Chlorobenzene to Phenol in Dow's process.

2. But, to convert Benzyl Chloride to Benzyl alcohol, only KOH and little heating is sufficient.

3. This is because, the reaction does not involve the bond breaking in the aromatic ring systems.