Phenol

The production of phenol or carbolic acid from benzene is the first step in the manufacture of
some important polymers, including the nylons, polycarbonates and the phenolic resins (a
hydrocarbon secretion of many plants). Phenols are a white, crystalline solid at room temperature.
Phenol is also a versatile precursor to a large collection of drugs, most notably aspirin but also
many herbicides and pharmaceuticals. Phenol is also used as an oral anesthetic/analgesic,
commonly used to temporarily treat pharyngitis.
Antiseptics such as 2,4- and 2,6-dichlorophenols are also made from phenol.
The antiseptic properties of phenol were used by Sir Joseph Lister (1827–1912) in his pioneering
technique of antiseptic surgery, although the skin irritation caused by continual exposure to
phenol eventually led to the substitution of aseptic (germ-free) techniques in surgery. Lister
decided that the wounds themselves had to be thoroughly cleaned. He then covered the wounds
with a piece of rag or lint covered in carbolic acid.
The word phenol is also used to refer to any compound that contains a six-
membered aromatic ring, bonded directly to a hydroxyl group (-OH).

The vast majority of phenol is made in chemical plants using the cumene process. The process
has three stages:
1. Production of cumene
2. conversion of cumene to cumene hydroperoxide
3. decomposition of cumene hydroperoxide

Cumene is also known as 1-methylethylbenzene produced from the reaction of benzene and
propene, using an acid catalyst. This is an example of a Fredel-Crafts reaction.
The Friedel-Crafts reaction is one in which an alkyl group from a halogenoalkane or an acyl
group from an acyl halide is substituted onto a benzene ring using aluminium chloride as a
catalyst.

Phenol is one of the chemicals for embalming bodies for study because of its ability to preserve
tissues for extended periods of time. However, formaldehyde is usually preferred over phenol
for embalming with intent of public viewing because of phenol's tendency to turn tissues an
unpleasant bleach-white color.
Phenol is also used in the preparation of cosmetics including sunscreens, hair dyes, and skin
lightening preparations.

Injections of phenol have occasionally been used as a means of rapid execution. In particular,
phenol was used as a means of murder by the Nazis during the Second World War. Originally
used by the Nazis in 1939 as part of its euthanasia program, phenol, inexpensive and easy to
make and quickly lethal, became the injectable toxin of choice through the last days of the war.
Although Zyklon-Bpellets, invented by Gerhard Lenz, were used in the gas chambers to
exterminate large groups of people, the Nazis learned that extermination of smaller groups was
more economical via injection of each victim, one at a time, with phenol. Phenol injections were
given to thousands of people in concentration camps, especially at Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Approximately one gram is enough to cause death.