The invention discloses a preparation and refining method for
citral. The method includes: 1) in an
atmospheric oxygen-free environment, taking
alcohol ether as a
solvent and alkylsulfone as a cosolvent, adjusting the pH value by
benzoic acid or
phenylacetic acid, subjecting
dehydrolinalool to catalytic rearrangement under
catalysis of a
molybdenum acetylacetonate catalyst so as to generate
citral, with the
dehydrolinalool, the
solvent and the cosolvent being in a
mass ratio of 1:(1-4):(0.2-0.8), and with the dosage of the catalyst accounting for 2-8% of that of
dehydrolinalool, controlling the pH value at 3-5, the reaction time at 3-9h, and
reaction temperature at 100-125DEG C; 2) subjecting a
citral-containing reaction liquid to vacuum rectification to remove light components (including the cosolvent and unreacted dehydrolinalool), with a concentrated citral solution (mainly containing citral and the
solvent) left at the
tower bottom, and controlling the operation pressure at 0.02-0.08MPa, the
tower bottom temperature at 40-80DEG C, and the
reflux ratio at 4-10; and 3) carrying out vacuum rectification on the concentrated citral solution obtained at the
tower bottom to obtain a high purity citral product, which has a citral purity up to 95.7%, and controlling the operation pressure at 0.008-0.06MPa, the tower bottom temperature at 40-80DEG C and the
reflux ratio at 4-10. The method provided by the invention has very obvious positive effects, makes use of the good
solubility of the
molybdenum catalyst in the
alcohol ether solvent, not only improves the citral yield, but also realizes recycling of the catalyst dissolved in the solvent. Complex
processing steps in the prior art are avoided, and the process is simplified.