PRODUCTION OF META-DIISOPROPYLBENZENE

A process for the selective production of meta-diisopropylbenzene is disclosed, wherein the process comprises the steps of contacting cumene under disproportionation conditions and in the absence of added benzene with a catalyst comprising a porous crystalline inorganic oxide material having an X-ray diffraction pattern including d-spacing maxima at 12.4±0.25, 6.9±0.15, 3.57±0.07 and 3.42±0.07 Angstrom to produce a disproportionation effluent containing benzene and a mixture of diusopropylbenzene isomers, and then recovering from said disproportionation effluent a meta-diisopropylbenzene boiling range fraction in which the ratio of meta-diisopropylbenzene to ortho-diisopropylbenzene is in excess of 50 and the total amount of meta-diisopropylbenzene co-boilers excluding ortho-diisopropylbenzene is less than 1 wt % of said fraction.