Sciencemadness Discussion Board

how useful would this chemical be?

BILLBUILDS - 3-9-2017 at 12:59

I was browsing eBay and i cam across calcium propionate



could you take off the calcium and put back to propanoic acid

theAngryLittleBunny - 3-9-2017 at 13:22

This is literally what I would need right now, you can mix it with sulfuric acid and distill off propionic acid. It depends on what you wanna use it for, if you just need a weak carboxylic acid, then I would go with acetic acid. But if you wanna for instance attach a propionyl group on a aromatic ring, you need propionyl chloride for that, which you can only make from propionic acid.

XeonTheMGPony - 3-9-2017 at 13:49

just make it and chloroform in one shot! Use MEK to make chloroform side product is propionic acid.

BILLBUILDS - 3-9-2017 at 16:05

how does that work. do you have a experimental for it

[Edited on 4-9-2017 by BILLBUILDS]

ninhydric1 - 3-9-2017 at 17:35

Add a little less than stoichiometric amount of MEK to a gallon of bleach. Shake the container and chill it for a few hours. Pour out the contents and separate the organic from the aqueous layer. The organic layer contains chloroform, the aqueous layer contains sodium propionate, sodium hydroxide, leftover bleach and chlorate, etc. Add calcium salt solution, and filter off the precipitate. The solution should have the calcium propionate.

EDIT: There will be calcium chlorate in solution but if the propionic acid to be formed and distilled, it shouldn't be a problem.

[Edited on 9-4-2017 by ninhydric1]

[Edited on 9-4-2017 by ninhydric1]

VSEPR_VOID - 4-9-2017 at 00:02

Quote: Originally posted by ninhydric1  
Add a little less than stoichiometric amount of MEK to a gallon of bleach. Shake the container and chill it for a few hours. Pour out the contents and separate the organic from the aqueous layer. The organic layer contains chloroform, the aqueous layer contains sodium propionate, sodium hydroxide, leftover bleach and chlorate, etc. Add calcium salt solution, and filter off the precipitate. The solution should have the calcium propionate.

EDIT: There will be calcium chlorate in solution but if the propionic acid to be formed and distilled, it shouldn't be a problem.

[Edited on 9-4-2017 by ninhydric1]

[Edited on 9-4-2017 by ninhydric1]


Could you link a source for that? It sounds interesting

XeonTheMGPony - 4-9-2017 at 11:21

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDMuQtglPIw

Next time I make chloroform I'll be doing it this way and isolating the acid as well.