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Author: Subject: Preparation of propionic acid
DraconicAcid
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[*] posted on 22-4-2015 at 09:34


Quote: Originally posted by blogfast25  
Quote: Originally posted by DraconicAcid  
According to this: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/222458939_The_oxida...

Primary alcohols will be oxidized by bleach not to the acids, but to the esters....


The solvent was acetonitrile:acetic acid (3:2), not for everyone, that. Reported yields were generally good. Wonder if this works also with the straight alcohols. Or perhaps using acetone as a solvent?

Interesting find.


You need the acetic acid there to make the solution acidic. If you wanted to make it easier to isolate the organic product, you could probably use an inorganic acid such as phosphoric, I guess. Just not as much.




Please remember: "Filtrate" is not a verb.
Write up your lab reports the way your instructor wants them, not the way your ex-instructor wants them.
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[*] posted on 22-4-2015 at 14:27


Here is the procedure from my notebook :

38.66g of Ca(OCl)2(81.22g were used because the package listed it as 47.6%) was dissolved in 400ml of distilled water and the solution was filtered to remove any insoluble salts which were present in the pool-grade chemical used. This was chilled to 0°C in an ice bath and strong stirring was started. Next, a mixture of 50ml of glacial acetic and 19.4ml of benzyl alcohol was added dropwise via a separatory funnel. Finally, the solution was allowed to warm to room temperature over a period of ten minutes while still stirring. The bottom layer of crude benzaldehyde was removed using the separatory funnel to yield approximately 17ml of crude benzaldehyde as a slightly yellow oily liquid. No attempt was made to purify the benzaldehyde as I do not have an apparatus small enough for distilling it and I didn't have any metabisulfite at the time.

I plan to revisit this synthesis soon and do various small scale tests utilizing different amounts of acetic acid as there was likely a large excess of acetic acid, I just used a direct scaleup from the rhodium archive. Unfortunately, I don't have the funds at the moment to purchase any more benzyl alcohol, so I will just ration the amount I have left.
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