trimethylphenol using chromium iii nitrate nonahydrate alone a catalyst consisting solely of chromium oxide was prepared in the same manner as described in example 2 thereafter the procedure of example 2 was repeated the conversion of the phenol was 67 4 the selectivity was 33 6 for o cresol and 59 7 for 2 6 xylenol five hundred g of chromium iii nitrate nonahydrate 50 g of tin ii chloride dihydrate and 50 g of iron iii nitrate nonahydrate were dissolved in 15 l of water and 500 g of urea was added to this solution the precipitate which was formed by boiling the solution on a heater was separated by filtration washed with water and then dried at 120 u00b0 c for about 15 hours the dried precipitate was crushed and adjusted to a particle size of 6 12 mesh then 120 ml of the resulting catalyst with a cr sn fe atomic ratio of 100 28 10 was packed into a stainless steel tubular reactor having an internal diameter of 25 mm the catalyst was calcined at 460 u00b0 c for 3 hours during which time nitrogen was passed through the reactor a mixture of phenol and methanol in a molar ratio of 1 4 was vaporized in a vaporizer kept at 300 u00b0 c and then introduced at a rate of 60 g per hour into the reactor having an internal temperature of 360 u00b0 c the reaction product was cooled by passing it through a water cooled condenser and then collected in a dry ice acetone trap the reaction product thus obtained was analyzed by gas chromatography the conversion of the phenol was 100 the selectivity based on the amount of phenol converted was 6.