p-Tolualdehyde

Clear colorless to pale yellow liquid. Soluble in alcohol and oils. Sweet-herbaceous, Bitter-almond-like moderately tenacious odor. Not as pungent as Benzaldehyde, but more herbaceous-warm. Intensely sweet, warm-fruity and Bitteralmond-like taste in concentrations lower than 500 ppm.

p-Tolualdehyde may be used as an analytical reference standard for the quantification of the analyte in the following:

• Air samples using high-performance liquid chromatography with UV detection (HPLC-UV).
• Mango cultivars using gas chromatography (GC) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS).

p-Tolualdehyde is used as an intermediate for the synthesis of pharmaceuticals, dyes perfumes and agrochemicals. It is also used as a fixative of flavorings. It is also used as an important organic intermediates, used for spices, triphenylmethane dye synthesis, etc.

p-Tolualdehyde is made by the Vilsmeier reaction employing toluene and dimethylformamide or the Guttermann–Koch reaction employing toluene and carbon monoxide.

p-Tolualdehyde is prepared by oxidation of mixed Tolylalcohols.

ChEBI: A tolualdehyde compound with the methyl substituent at the 4-position.

Journal of the American Chemical Society, 105, p. 7175, 1983 DOI: 10.1021/ja00362a028
Tetrahedron Letters, 29, p. 6265, 1988 DOI: 10.1016/S0040-4039(00)82321-7

p-Tolualdehyde (4-Methylbenzaldehyde) is an aromatic aldehyde. It has been generated as major oxygenated product during the UV light irradiated oxygenation of p-xylene, via photoinduced electron transfer mechanism. It undergoes condensation reaction with diiron μ-ethylidyne complex to afford μ-vinylcarbyne complex (92% yield).

Not classified

Steam distil the aldehyde, dry it with CaSO4, then fractionally distil it. [Beilstein 7 IV 672.]

The initial threshold screening level (ITSL) for p-tolualdehyde is 440 μg/m3 based on an annual averaging time.