The invention discloses a method for preparing high-purity m-
cresol by selectively oxidizing mixed m-
cresol and p-
cresol. The method comprises the following steps: putting mixed m-cresol and p-cresol,a catalyst,
sodium hydroxide and a
solvent into a container, stirring, heating to a
reaction temperature, continuously introducing
oxygen to react, adding water, distilling to recover the
solvent toobtain a mother solution, acidifying, adjusting the pH value, cooling, crystallizing, and filtering to obtain
filter cake which is p-hydroxybenzaldehyde
sodium salt and a mother solution which is a m-cresol
sodium salt solution; dissolving and acidifying the p-hydroxybenzaldehyde
sodium salt, adjusting the pH value, cooling, crystallizing and filtering to obtain
filter cake that is a wet p-hydroxybenzaldehyde product, and
drying to obtain a finished p-hydroxybenzaldehyde product with the purity of higher than 99.2%; acidifying the m-cresol
sodium salt solution, adjusting the pH value, collecting an
oil phase m-cresol crude product, and putting the
oil phase m-cresol crude product into a
tower kettle of a rectifying
tower; starting magnetic stirring in the
tower kettle for stirring, starting a high-vacuum mechanical pump for
pressure reduction, starting tower kettle heating, and collecting a front distillate, a main distillate and a rear distillate. The obtained main distillate is an m-cresol finished product with the purity of higher than 99.5%.