Sciencemadness Discussion Board

synthesis of acetophenone

lalalympo - 5-9-2016 at 09:54

Hello,

this is my first topic on this forum, I'm a bit of a newbie when it comes chemistry but I'm eager to learn.

So I want to synthesize some acetophenone, the stuff pretty much impossible to get where I live.

I've read about Fiedel-Crafts acylation on some forums but not enough to start to preform this reaction.

I want to dry-distill calcium acetate and calcium benzoate, since it seems the easiest. Could I just dump the two in a RBF? Or does it need a catalyst? If anyone knows how to preform this reaction or has done it I'd be happy to hear about it.

If you have a potentially easier way of making acetophenone (I want to stay away from benzene) you can also tell me

RocksInHead - 5-9-2016 at 10:01

From what I've heard an easy way to make it is by reacting acetyl chloride and benzene over an aluminium chloride catalyst.

http://www.prepchem.com/synthesis-of-acetophenone/

Metacelsus - 5-9-2016 at 11:46

That's easy only if you have acetyl chloride and benzene. Also note that the OP wants to avoid using benzene.
The same PrepChem page details a synthesis from calcium benzoate and acetate, which is what the OP requested.


Dank - 5-9-2016 at 19:54

Wacker oxidation of styrene is an option as well. Chemplayer made a video on the calcium acetate/calcium benzoate method but yields were abysmal IIRC.

CuReUS - 6-9-2016 at 00:16

another method from styrene - http://www.sciencemadness.org/talk/viewthread.php?tid=66322
you could also do a grignard reaction between benzonitrile (made from benzoic acid using urea + sulphamic acid) and MeMgBr

RocksInHead - 6-9-2016 at 03:22

Quote: Originally posted by Metacelsus  
That's easy only if you have acetyl chloride and benzene. Also note that the OP wants to avoid using benzene.
The same PrepChem page details a synthesis from calcium benzoate and acetate, which is what the OP requested.



Oh, sorry. If I would have read down a little lower then I would have seen it, but I was in a rush anyway. Oh well.