Benzoic anhydride is prepared by heating benzoic acid with acetic anhydride in the presence of H3PO4, as described by H. T. Clarke and E. J. Rahrs in 1923 in volume 3 of Organic Syntheses. It is used primarily as a benzoylating agent in industrial chemical synthesis. Recently, D. Seidel and co-workers used benzoic anhydride and other inexpensive reagents in acylation reactions to give products that can be enantiomerically resolved.
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