Phorone

Phorone, or diisopropylidene acetone, is a yellow crystalline substance with a geranium odor. It is a self-condensation product of acetone and a common impurity in mesityl oxide. Phorone, or diisopropylidene acetone, is a yellow crystalline substance with a geranium odor. It is a self-condensation product of acetone and a common impurity in mesityl oxide. It was first obtained in 1837 in impure form by the French chemist Auguste Laurent, who called it 'camphoryle'. In 1849, the French chemist Charles Frédéric Gerhardt and his student Jean Pierre Liès-Bodart prepared it in a pure state and named it 'phorone'. On both occasions it was produced by ketonization through the dry distillation of the calcium salt of camphoric acid. It is now typically obtained by the acid-catalysed self-condensation of acetone in an aldol condensation. Mesityl oxide is obtained as an intermediate and can be isolated.