Maui3 - 11-9-2024 at 07:54
Hi Sciencemadness-people! 
Yesterday I made some chloral hydrate from the chlorination of ethanol in water. It went very well (at least for my first chlorination), but (I assume
since water was added) the chloral hydrate is dissolved in the water, and now I really don't know how to isolate it. Anything vacuum really isn't an
option for me. Also, when I was done with the chlorination I was left with two layers for some reason, but I am pretty confident that it is in fact
chloral hydrate since the reaction-mixture smells like slighty spicy pear.
Also, I feel like I should add that I checked it's legality where I live.
bnull - 11-9-2024 at 12:15
Did you test it? Sodium hydroxide converts chloral to chloroform and you can make an estimate of how much chloral was produced.
jackchem2001 - 11-9-2024 at 17:26
In the presence of water, the aldehyde will form a diol which is further oxidized to the carboxylic acid, so what you like have is a mixture of
mono/di/trichloro acetic acid. Try an acid/base extraction to confirm
Maui3 - 12-9-2024 at 00:47
Thank you all for the replies!
I did not test how much chloral was produced, but I was kind of hoping I could get some nice crystals from it.
Also, this patent (https://patents.google.com/patent/DE734723C/en) describes the synthesis from chlorination of ethanol in water, and it does smell a lot like pears,
so I think I atleast have some chloral hydrate.