regioselective13
Harmless
Posts: 6
Registered: 4-4-2015
Member Is Offline
Mood: No Mood
|
|
Chlorobutanol Catalyst for Potassium Production
So I was looking at this thread about making potassium metal from the hydroxide
http://www.sciencemadness.org/talk/viewthread.php?tid=14970
and I was wondering if chlorobutanol would be an acceptable catalyst for the reaction. It's a non-aromatic tertiary alcohol so it looks good from a
first glance, but would the trio of chlorine atoms pulling electron density away have any effect on the efficacy?
[Edited on 6-4-2015 by regioselective13]
|
|
|
Metacelsus
International Hazard
Posts: 2539
Registered: 26-12-2012
Location: Boston, MA
Member Is Offline
Mood: Double, double, toil and trouble
|
|
Chloro groups react with alkali metals.
|
|
|
j_sum1
Administrator
Posts: 6326
Registered: 4-10-2014
Location: At home
Member Is Offline
Mood: Most of the ducks are in a row
|
|
The space filled molecular model really makes it clear that this is not quite the same thing. I am not claiming that the atomic radii are in the
correct proportion here, but it does illustrate just how much those chlorines dominate.
[edit]mumble mumble typo
[Edited on 7-4-2015 by j_sum1]
|
|
|
blogfast25
International Hazard
Posts: 10562
Registered: 3-2-2008
Location: Neverland
Member Is Offline
Mood: No Mood
|
|
Nothing chlorinated would work in that reaction. Any potassium formed (hypothetically) would react with the trichlorobutanol (whatever the isomer).
|
|
|
regioselective13
Harmless
Posts: 6
Registered: 4-4-2015
Member Is Offline
Mood: No Mood
|
|
Ahhh that makes sense now that I think about it, halogens are better leaving groups than alcohols, and if alkali metals can react with alcohols then
they will definitely react with a halogen.
|
|
|
blogfast25
International Hazard
Posts: 10562
Registered: 3-2-2008
Location: Neverland
Member Is Offline
Mood: No Mood
|
|
Good/bad leaving groups aside, mixing alkali metals and C-Cl bonds containing organics is a thoroughly bad idea. This post contains a link to
explosions caused by sodium and chloroform (the link to the *.pdf is old but still live):
http://www.sciencemadness.org/talk/viewthread.php?tid=5112#p...
|
|
|
nezza
Hazard to Others
Posts: 324
Registered: 17-4-2011
Location: UK
Member Is Offline
Mood: phosphorescent
|
|
As a rule of thumb heating organics containing chlorine with alkali metals is a BAD thing. They tend to decompose violently (explode). Any potassium
formed would certainly react with the chlorbutanol immediately.
[Edited on 8-4-2015 by nezza]
If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.
|
|
|
Texium
|
Thread Pruned
11-1-2016 at 10:05 |
![[*]](images/xpblue/default_icon.gif){kind=icon}
