What are the steps to convert chlorobenzene to diphenyl ether?

Question

Ph-Cl ------> Ph-O-Ph. What are the required no. of steps? What reagents do we require? What is the mechanism of the reaction?

Answer 1

Half an equivalent of NaOH. First half of it gets converted to phenol (PhOH), then it reacts with the other half of PhCl to form Ph-O-Ph. This reaction probably wouldn't work without some sort of catalyst, but if you are in a lower level chemistry class they might accept it. They would both be SnAr reactions. If not, do a diazotization reaction to get the phenol, then a buchwald (Pd catalyzed) type coupling to form the diphenyl ether.