Identification of Phenols on the Basis of Absorption Maxima of Coloured Products Formed in the Ag+ Catalysed Oxidation by Peroxydisulphate

Department of Chemistry, University of Roorkee, Roorkee-247 672

Manuscript received 16 October 1981, accepted 20 May 1983

A scheme for the identification of 26 phenols has been proposed. This is based on the reaction of aqueous peroxydisuiphate solution with the phenols (in 50% acetone-water solution) in presence of Ag⁺  as catalyst, resulting in the formation of differently coloured solutions (in most cases) with differing absorption-maxima in the visible range. Micro­gram amounts of phenols can be detected and identified by this method.