@mikewick77: Hydroquinone,

Hydroquinone, ammonium acetate, and acetic acid were mixed in an argon atmosphere and heated slowly to 230 °C. The mixture was stirred at this temperature for 15 hours. After cooling the acetic acid was evaporated and the precipitate was filtered, washed with water and dried to give paracetamol as a white solid.

Hydrolysis

Hydrolysis (from Ancient Greek hydro 'water', and lysis 'to unbind') is any chemical reaction in which a molecule of water ruptures one or more chemical bonds. The term is used broadly for substitution, elimination, and solvation reactions in which water is the nucleophile.

Usually hydrolysis is a chemical process in which a molecule of water is added to a substance. Sometimes this addition causes both substance and water molecule to split into two parts. In such reactions, one fragment of the target molecule (or parent molecule) gains a hydrogen ion. It breaks a chemical bond in the compound.

A common kind of hydrolysis occurs when a salt of a weak acid or weak base (or both) is dissolved in water. Water spontaneously ionizes into hydroxide anions and hydronium cations. The salt also dissociates into its constituent anions and cations. For example, sodium acetate dissociates in water into sodium and acetate ions. Sodium ions react very little with the hydroxide ions whereas the acetate ions combine with hydronium ions to produce acetic acid. In this case the net result is a relative excess of hydroxide ions, yielding a basic solution.

Strong acids also undergo hydrolysis. For example, dissolving sulfuric acid (H2SO4) in water is accompanied by hydrolysis to give hydronium and bisulfate, the sulfuric acid's conjugate base. For a more technical discussion of what occurs during such a hydrolysis, (Brønsted–Lowry acid–base theory).