Deo
Harmless
Posts: 11
Registered: 2-12-2024
Member Is Offline
|
|
Aluminum Isopropoxide without nasties
First post in this community 
I just successfully made aluminum isopropoxide without using mercuric chloride or iodine. I'm not sure if this is common knowledge yet but it seems
like it is possible to use just Anh. Copper (II) chloride as a catalyst. I'm sure other transition metals like iron could work as well.
The setup I used was a little more complicated, where instead of just a drying tube on top of the reflux condenser, it was connected to a gas wash
bottle filled with H2SO4 instead to keep all air and moisture out of the system.
I refluxed about 80 mL of IPA with 30g of aluminum foil with 2.5g of copper chloride dissolved in the IPA. At first nothing seemed to happen but after
an hour the alcohol started to become dark and cloudy. After another 2 hours all the aluminum foil pieces disintegrated and the liquid was dark. At
this point I stopped because it was dark, but I think it could have gone for longer.
After cooling, there was a good sign because the liquid became a gel like consistency. I burned a little bit on a metal rod and it emitted a white
aluminum oxide smoke.
Anyways I still gotta vacuum distill this once my vacuum pump arrives. 
This is the flask a couple days later.

[Edited on 3-12-2024 by Deo]
|
|
Rainwater
National Hazard
  
Posts: 983
Registered: 22-12-2021
Member Is Offline
Mood: Break'n glass & kick'n a's
|
|
House hold aluminum foil tends to leave a carbon residue whenever I disolive it.
That may be why yours has turned dark as well
"You can't do that" - challenge accepted
|
|
Sir_Gawain
Hazard to Others
 
Posts: 487
Registered: 12-10-2022
Location: [REDACTED]
Member Is Offline
Mood: Still in 2022
|
|
Good prep.
The dark residue could also be silicon.
“Alchemy is trying to turn things yellow; chemistry is trying to avoid things turning yellow.” -Tom deP.
|
|
Deo
Harmless
Posts: 11
Registered: 2-12-2024
Member Is Offline
|
|
I mean every other prep I’ve seen with HgCl2 also becomes dark. I’m pretty sure it’s just unreacted aluminum particles or other junk. It’s not
really a problem.
|
|
Admagistr
Hazard to Others
 
Posts: 382
Registered: 4-11-2021
Location: Central Europe
Member Is Offline
Mood: The dreaming alchemist
|
|
Have you tried using an aluminum-galllium alloy? That could work very well too and is not toxic.
|
|
Deo
Harmless
Posts: 11
Registered: 2-12-2024
Member Is Offline
|
|
The reason I was testing copper chloride was that gallium is still very expensive and hard to get. If copper chloride works I see no reason to use
gallium. Perhaps there is a yield improvement however I cannot test that since I am still waiting on vacuum distillation of the product.
|
|
clearly_not_atara
International Hazard
   
Posts: 2819
Registered: 3-11-2013
Member Is Offline
Mood: Big
|
|
Nice work. I always wondered if you could use copper for this instead of mercury so it's nice to see someone confirming it.
|
|
Admagistr
Hazard to Others
 
Posts: 382
Registered: 4-11-2021
Location: Central Europe
Member Is Offline
Mood: The dreaming alchemist
|
|
Quote: Originally posted by Deo  | The reason I was testing copper chloride was that gallium is still very expensive and hard to get. If copper chloride works I see no reason to use
gallium. Perhaps there is a yield improvement however I cannot test that since I am still waiting on vacuum distillation of the product.
|
The use of CuCl2 is a very good and interesting idea, I mentioned Gallium for comparison, if a comparative experiment was done to see if the purity of
the product and yield would show a difference. Yes, Gallium is expensive compared to CuCl2, but years ago I got it very cheaply from China and
verified on an X-ray spectrometer its purity, which was indeed 99.99%.I am curious about your results and will try the experiment myself with Gallium
and CuCl2. And welcome to the Forum!
|
|
Rainwater
National Hazard
  
Posts: 983
Registered: 22-12-2021
Member Is Offline
Mood: Break'n glass & kick'n a's
|
|
Other than getting some really pure aluminum compounds, whats this stuff good for? I read the wiki page but that doesn't really mean much to me. Other
than making alcohols. Using a beer can to fill a beer can. That sounds better than plastic bottles into grape soda.
Ok scrap that. Say i wanted to make some ethanol, how would his compound do that?
"You can't do that" - challenge accepted
|
|
Deo
Harmless
Posts: 11
Registered: 2-12-2024
Member Is Offline
|
|
Quote: Originally posted by Rainwater  | Other than getting some really pure aluminum compounds, whats this stuff good for? I read the wiki page but that doesn't really mean much to me. Other
than making alcohols. Using a beer can to fill a beer can. That sounds better than plastic bottles into grape soda.
Ok scrap that. Say i wanted to make some ethanol, how would his compound do that? |
It’s useful as a reducing agent for ketones to those who can’t get borohydrides very easily. My personal usage for this is to reduce camphor to
Borneol for use as a catalyst in producing sodium. You wouldn’t use this for making ethanol.
Also I made a mistake in the original prep it was 12g of al foil not 30g lol
[Edited on 5-12-2024 by Deo]
|
|