3655.     WENDER, I., GREENFIELD, H., AND ORCHIN, M.  Chemistry of the Oxo and Related Reactions.  IV.  Reductions in the Aromatic Series.  Jour. Am. Chem. Soc., vol. 73, 1951, pp. 2656-2658.

        Previous work has shown that certain aliphatic alcohols react with H₂ and CO in the presence of a Co catalyst to give an homologous alcohol; only in the case of MeOH is any of the alcohol reduced to a hydrocarbon.  The present study is concerned with the reaction of alcohols and ketones in the aromatic series under the same conditions and shows that in all cases hydrocarbons are the principal products.  Benzyl alcohol gives both 2-phenylathanol and toluene, but substituted benzyl alcohols of the type C₆H₅CR₁R₂OH, where R₁ and R₂ may be H₂, alkyl, or aryl groups, react to give hydrocarbons in excellent yields.  the mechanism of hydrocarbon formation is discussed.  A simple, convenient procedure for the preparation of dicobalt octacarbonyl is given.