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Author: Subject: Chlorobutanol Catalyst for Potassium Production
regioselective13
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[*] posted on 6-4-2015 at 10:17
Chlorobutanol Catalyst for Potassium Production


So I was looking at this thread about making potassium metal from the hydroxide

http://www.sciencemadness.org/talk/viewthread.php?tid=14970

and I was wondering if chlorobutanol would be an acceptable catalyst for the reaction. It's a non-aromatic tertiary alcohol so it looks good from a first glance, but would the trio of chlorine atoms pulling electron density away have any effect on the efficacy?

[Edited on 6-4-2015 by regioselective13]
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Metacelsus
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[*] posted on 6-4-2015 at 12:39


Chloro groups react with alkali metals.



As below, so above.

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j_sum1
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[*] posted on 6-4-2015 at 16:01


The space filled molecular model really makes it clear that this is not quite the same thing. I am not claiming that the atomic radii are in the correct proportion here, but it does illustrate just how much those chlorines dominate.

[edit]mumble mumble typo

[Edited on 7-4-2015 by j_sum1]
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[*] posted on 6-4-2015 at 17:10


Nothing chlorinated would work in that reaction. Any potassium formed (hypothetically) would react with the trichlorobutanol (whatever the isomer).



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regioselective13
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[*] posted on 7-4-2015 at 13:04


Ahhh that makes sense now that I think about it, halogens are better leaving groups than alcohols, and if alkali metals can react with alcohols then they will definitely react with a halogen.
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[*] posted on 7-4-2015 at 15:12


Good/bad leaving groups aside, mixing alkali metals and C-Cl bonds containing organics is a thoroughly bad idea. This post contains a link to explosions caused by sodium and chloroform (the link to the *.pdf is old but still live):

http://www.sciencemadness.org/talk/viewthread.php?tid=5112#p...




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[*] posted on 8-4-2015 at 10:44


As a rule of thumb heating organics containing chlorine with alkali metals is a BAD thing. They tend to decompose violently (explode). Any potassium formed would certainly react with the chlorbutanol immediately.

[Edited on 8-4-2015 by nezza]




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