[Ladyluck]

I know that the answer to this question should be easy, and I have a feeling that as soon as someone answers it I will realise how silly I was being but I just can't find the answer anywhere.

simple Q; " 2-methylphenol can be synthesised from phenol. State the reagents and reaction condiions needed to carry out the conversion".

It would help to know how you have come to the answer too-was it by looking at a similar reaction or are there certain rules I need to know about?

thank you so much for your help, looking forward to your reply.

[Fridushka]

Well as i know, the OH on the benzene ring is ortho or para director, well here you want ortho, which will be the minor product..so if you add CH₃Cl in the presence of AlCl₃ you will get p-methylphenol as a major product and o-methylphenol as a minor product ..
 

[UnintentionalChaos]

The only immediate way I can think of to get the ortho-methyl exclusively is the claisen rearrangement of allyl phenyl ether to 2-allyl phenol, the oxidative scission to salicylic acid with KMnO4, the reduction to 2-hydroxymethyl phenol with LiAlH4, reflux with lucas's reagent to make 2-chloromethyl phenol, and the reduction with LiAlH4 to your product, o-cresol.

Now, that is reagent intensive, and completely impractical. I suggest instead that you submit a large excess of phenol to FC alkylation with bromomethane or the like and fractionate your products.