i read that pthalic acid (particularly ortho and para) easily yields benzoic acid when heated with a copper salt catalyst (e.g. Copper pthalate), it occurs via elimination of CO2.
(that could be somewhat usefull in and of itself, pthalic acid can be obtained by hydrolysing dacron for instance, i.e. throw the stuffing from inside your underage girlfriends teddy bear into some boiling H20,H2S04, she'll cry at first but imagine the smile on her face when her teddy bear yields 100g of benzoic acid!)
but the real opportunity i see from this is a possible route to benzene, the book seemed to indicate that the reaction is general for aryl-COOH compounds, does anyone have any knowledge/articles about generating benzene by CO2 elimination from benzoic acid???
