Zincke-Suhl reaction

The Zincke-Suhl reaction is a special case of a Friedel-Crafts alkylation and was first described by Zincke and Suhl  :



The classic example of this reaction is the conversion of p-cresol to a cyclohexadienone (with the aid of aluminum chloride as a catalyst and tetrachloromethane as a solvent). Melvin Newman, a scientist from the U.S. intensively studied the reaction in the 1950's and reported several improved procedures as well as mechanistic studies.

The reaction product is a starting material in the dienol benzene rearrangement.