The Preparation of High-Purity Cholesteryl Oleyl Carbonate

Abstract The preparation of high-purity cholesteryl oleyl carbonate for thermal radiography is described. Oleyl alcohol of 99.9% purity was obtained from olive oil via urea-adducts, acid soap crystallizations, fractional distillation, and subsequent reduction of methyl oleate with lithium aluminum hydride in tetrahydrofuran. The reaction of oleyl alcohol with cholesteryl chloroformate in the presence of pyridine in benzene at 0[ddot], followed by chromatography on silica gel, results in a cholesteryl oleyl carbonate with a maximum temperature coefficient of selective reflectance of about 13,000% per [ddot]C.