I've been getting some use of my Dean Stark trap this week to dry some oxalic acid, just because I haven't used the apparatus before and wanted to get
the hang of it.
Now i've used it with toluene because I had 1 litre of it in my stock but I wonder if benzene might be useful as I have plenty of sodium benzoate and
sodium hydroxide.
Is benzene really an evil substance?digga - 6-9-2024 at 16:24
It is carcinogenic, but is present in west coast gasoline. Don't sniff it. Don't get it on you. Use in well ventilated area. Long term exposure is
a bad idea. The decarboxylation of benzoic acid by sodium hydroxide is interesting. The raw product is orange. The color is due to a polycyclic
aromatic like tetracene or chrysene. This fluoresces in UV light. You can use this to see just how clean your work was. My bench lit up big time.
I used a small paint can with a 24/40 socket puttied into the lid as a reactor. Put it over a gas flame. Sir_Gawain - 6-9-2024 at 17:17
You don’t need a gas stove, I used a hotplate and got a good yield. The key is to not do too much at a time: the powder is a poor conductor of heat,
so you need to keep the layer pretty thin. I think around 100 g is a good amount. bnull - 7-9-2024 at 15:01
Quote:
Is benzene really an evil substance?
Leukemia and damages to DNA, just to mention two possible effects. If toluene were Mussolini, benzene would be at least Beria or Himmler.
