A New Method for Nitration of Phenolic Compounds

Phenolic compounds can be nitrated by 65% nitric acid in the presence of catalytic amounts of montmorillonite KSF and bismuth(III) nitrate to give the corresponding nitrated products in good yields in a heterogeneous phase. The co-catalyst of KSF and Bi(NO^3)^3 can be esily recovered and reused in the next batch of nitration.