Development of production process of a new pesticide from 1,4-naphthoquinone

2-Acetoxy-3-dodecyl-1,4-naphthoquinone (Acequinocyl) was acaricide which or iginated by Du Pont in 1975. Kawasaki Kasei Chemical Ltd. developed a new i ndustrial production process of Acequinocyl, starting from 1,4-naphthoquino ne which is known as a widely used industrial raw material produced only by us in the world. The key technique of this new process was how to introduc e a dodecyl group on 3-position of 2-hydroxy-1,4-naphthoquinone. In the pro cess of research, we discovered that 3-(1-dodecenyl)-2-hydroxy-1,4-naphthoq uinone could be easily obtained with over 90% of yield from ammonium salt o f 3-(1-alkylaminododecyl)-2-hydroxy-1,4-naphthoquinone under thermal decomp osition condition. We also developed a convenient production process of hig h purity beta -hydroxy-1,4-naphthoquinone from 1,4-naphthoquinone. This new synthetic route was extremely useful as an industrial process compared wit h the conventional processes. In this paper we report the development course of high yield and low cost p roduction processes of Acequinocyl from 1,4-naphthoquinone.