Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, Brooklyn, .Ne Y.Because of the increasing importance of the isomeric cresols, the necessity of their separation for various industrial uses, and the closeness of their physical and chemical properties, methods for their analytical determination are of interest. The proposed methods have been surveyed, and a method based on colorimetric analysis is described which allows the determination to be made relatively easily and accurately. 8 i l I G H T be expected from 'their isomeric structures, the A physical properties of m-and p-cresol are almost identical.Because of their ever-increasing industrial prominence, the analysis of m-and p-cresol mixtures has been the subject of many detailed investigations using chemical, physical-chemical, spectroscopic, and colorimetric procedures.
PREVIOUS ANALYTICAL METHODSI 1 1 1900 Kaschig (26) described a method of nitration giving a solid tnnitro-rn-cresol, which could be separated as such. Dawson and Mountford ( 5 ) and Quist (25) questioned these results v, hen the amount of n-cresol present was high. The quantitative bromination of hydrogen atoms spaced in the ortho or para position to the hydroxyl group of phenols was described by Koppeschaar ( l a ) , Ditz and Cedivoda ( 7 ) ) Fox and Barker (11), Sprung (%), Ruderman (dg), and Scott (52). In 1921, Kendall and Beaver (16) showed that the specific electrical conductivities of the mixture of m-and p-cresols nere slightly different from those of the pure components. Scheiber (31) made viscosity measurements for binary as well as ternary systems of the isomeiic cresols and showed that no appreciable change in average complexity occurred on mixing. The use of the difference in freezing points of m-and p-cresol early appeared attractive as an analytical method and was investigated by Dawson and Mountford ( 5 ) and Fox and Barker (10). Supercooling of the liquid \?as found to be important. The freezing point diagram shows two eutectics at 12 and 57% p-cresol. The analysis of the miutures is therefore complicated by the fact that one freezing point could designate as many as four compositions. Nevertheless Stevens and Xckels (34) made use of freezing points and cloud points of the mixtures for rapid analysis of commercial products. Other physicochemical methods that have been investigated include the titration of the cresols in ethyl alcohol (5), inasmuch ab there is some difference in the values of dissociation constants of in-and p-cresol (K. = 0.98 X and 0.67 X 10-10