Toluene

Description

Toluene is a clear, colourless liquid with a sweet, benzene-like odour. Toluene occurs naturally in crude oil and in the toluene tree. It is also produced in the process of making gasoline and other fuels from crude oil and making coke from coal. Toluene is used in making paints, paint thinners, fingernail polish, lacquers, adhesives, and rubber and in some printing and leather tanning processes. Toluene is also used in the production of polymers used to make nylon, plastic soda bottles, and polyurethanes and for pharmaceuticals, dyes, cosmetic nail products, and the synthesis of organic chemicals.
Toluene has been reported as the most commonly abused hydrocarbon solvent, primarily through ‘glue sniffing’. The common possibilities of exposure to high levels of toluene include indoor air from the use of household products such as paints, paint thinners, adhesives, synthetic fragrances, and many other sources.

Description

Toluene is a common solvent in organic chemistry. It is closely related to benzene but due to its much lower toxicity it is often used as an alternative to benzene. Xylenes are also similar to toluene and are used for many of the same reactions as toluene.

Description

March is MOTW Solvent Month! This is the third of four articles about key solvents—Ed.
Toluene, or toluol as it was once called, is the simplest aromatic hydrocarbon except for benzene. It was first isolated in 1837 from pine oil by Polish chemist Filip N. Walter. Four years later, French chemist Henri étienne Sainte-Claire Deville isolated it from “tolu balsam” (extracted from the Colombian tree Myroxylon balsamum). Within the next 10 years, chemists settled on toluene as the name for the then-new substance.
As shown in the statistics table, almost all of the global toluene demand is produced in oil refineries or is a byproduct of ethylene crackers. Similarly, most of it is used to make other aromatics or as a gasoline additive. Its use as a solvent is relatively minor; but it is a primary ingredient in paints, lacquers, and resins.?
Toluene has largely replaced the more-toxic benzene as a solvent. Benzene is an established carcinogen, but the carcinogenicity of toluene is as yet undetermined.

The Uses of Toluene

Toluene is derived from coal tar as well aspetroleum. It occurs in gasoline and manypetroleum solvents. Toluene is used to producetrinitrotoluene (TNT), toluene diisocyanate,and benzene; as an ingredient fordyes, drugs, and detergents; and as an industrialsolvent for rubbers, paints, coatings, andoils.

The Uses of Toluene

A mixture of the SM (1.08 g, 3.53 mmol) and PPh3 (1.39 g, 5.29 mmol) in toluene (20 mL) was stirred at reflux for 18 h. The mixture was cooled and the precipitate was collected, washed with toluene, and air dried to provide the product. [1.88 g, 94%]