Sciencemadness Discussion Board

do alkali carbonate and alkyl halides react to give carbonate esters?

rockyit98 - 27-7-2019 at 00:28

do alkali carbonate and alkyl halides react to give carbonate esters? - Na2CO3 +2(CH3CH2Cl) -------->2NaCl + CH3CH2OCOOCH3CH2


[Edited on 27-7-2019 by rockyit98]

Ubya - 27-7-2019 at 11:15

i don't know, but something is telling me that it is really unlikely, at least in normal conditions

Boffis - 28-7-2019 at 04:49

You mght be able to do it with silver carbonate and alkyl bromide or iodide

AvBaeyer - 28-7-2019 at 17:43

The short answer is no. Alkali metal carbonates (eg, potassium, cesium) are widely used as bases for alkylation with reactive alkyl halides. I have never seen a report or comment that dialkyl carbonates have been detected or isolated from these reactions.

Boffis's comment that silver carbonate may yield dialkyl carbonates is a sound one and should be searched for further information.

AvB

DraconicAcid - 28-7-2019 at 18:08

What solvent are you going to dissolve the silver carbonate in? I suspect that you're only going to be able to get that to work in acetonitrile, and you'd need an iodide to get the silver to precipitate from that solution.