chornedsnorkack
National Hazard
Posts: 564
Registered: 16-2-2012
Member Is Offline
Mood: No Mood
|
|
Liquid Lewis acids
Aluminum halides are popular Lewis acid catalysts.
However, they have the inconvenience of being solid.
How convenient and widely used Lewis acid is boron bromide?
Boils at +91, freezes at -46.
In contrast to boron chloride (boils at +13), boron iodide (melts at +50), aluminum chloride (melts at +193) and aluminum bromide (melts at +98).
Also, what are good solvents for boron bromide?
Bromine itself is apolar due to symmetry. But boron bromide shares the lack of polarity due to symmetry (B-Br bonds are polar, but flat equilateral
triangle cancels the dipoles). Are liquid bromine and boron bromide miscible?
Does the mixture undergo any special reactions?
|
|
Heptylene
Hazard to Others
Posts: 319
Registered: 22-10-2016
Member Is Offline
Mood: No Mood
|
|
Boron tribromide reacts with atmospheric moisture to product HBr and boric acid. So handling it is tricky without inert atmosphere technique. Making
it in the lab is probably not easy and its not easy to find. I've seen it on onyxmet however.
So unless you have a commercial source I can't see how it could be more handy than aluminum trichloride, unless the procedure calls for BBr3
specifically.
|
|
JJay
International Hazard
Posts: 3440
Registered: 15-10-2015
Member Is Offline
|
|
I want to know if boron tribromide and sodium hydride react to make sodium borohydride.
|
|
weilawei
Hazard to Others
Posts: 130
Registered: 3-12-2017
Member Is Offline
Mood: No Mood
|
|
Boron tribromide looks like a nightmare to make. Boron carbide and liquid bromine at 300°C? Whoa. I don't even really mind working with bromine, but
I keep it frozen or as cold as possible. The idea of heating it so strongly is disconcerting.
|
|
JJay
International Hazard
Posts: 3440
Registered: 15-10-2015
Member Is Offline
|
|
300 C is the minimum temperature for the reaction to take place... it is usually run at 800-900 C.
|
|
markx
National Hazard
Posts: 646
Registered: 7-8-2003
Location: Northern kingdom
Member Is Offline
Mood: Very Jolly
|
|
Titanium tetrachloride is a liquid....vanadium tetrachloride being another example. Both display Lewis acidity properties on a remarkable level.
Synthesis of these compounds might prove to be challenging though.
For example starting from respective carbide:
TiC + 2Cl2 -> TiCl4 +C (amorphous)
at 600-1000C in argon atmoshpere.
The chlorination temperature can be brought down into the 400C range by using catalysts (iron or nickel salts for example).
Exact science is a figment of imagination.......
|
|
SWIM
National Hazard
Posts: 970
Registered: 3-9-2017
Member Is Offline
|
|
Titanium tetrachloride has industrial uses as a smoke generator, and might not be that hard to just buy.
I've seen small sealed ampules used for leak finding, even the occasional bottle.
Never tried to buy any myself though.
|
|
DraconicAcid
International Hazard
Posts: 4356
Registered: 1-2-2013
Location: The tiniest college campus ever....
Member Is Offline
Mood: Semi-victorious.
|
|
Most good Lewis acids are moisture-sensitive.
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.
|
|
chornedsnorkack
National Hazard
Posts: 564
Registered: 16-2-2012
Member Is Offline
Mood: No Mood
|
|
Liquid or low-melting, moisture-sensitive halides include:
SiCl4, m -69, b +58
SiBr4, m +5, b +153
GeCl4, m -50, b +86
GeBr4, m +26, b +186
SnCl4, m -34, b +114
SnBr4, m +31, b +205
PCl3, m -93, b +76
PBr3, m -41, b +173
AsCl3, m -16, b +130
AsBr3, m +31, b +221
SbCl5, m +3, b +140
SbF5, m +8, b +150
SCl2, m -121, b +59
S2Cl2, m -80, b +137
Se2Cl2, m -85, b +127
|
|
fusso
International Hazard
Posts: 1922
Registered: 23-6-2017
Location: 4 ∥ universes ahead of you
Member Is Offline
|
|
SnCl4, S(2)Cl2 maybe the easiest to make.
|
|
clearly_not_atara
International Hazard
Posts: 2800
Registered: 3-11-2013
Member Is Offline
Mood: Big
|
|
Liquid Lewis acids are almost always volatile, and, with the exception of fluorinated organoboranes, tend to react with water to produce toxic gases.
This makes them dangerous to handle and therefore not preferred.
The answer is "yes", but IIRC the answer is also "yes" for the same reaction with trimethyl borate, which is vastly easier to produce, handle and
store.
|
|
macckone
Dispenser of practical lab wisdom
Posts: 2168
Registered: 1-3-2013
Location: Over a mile high
Member Is Offline
Mood: Electrical
|
|
Tin in a chlorine gas stream at 115C+.
That would actually be pretty easy heat a tube with tin in it and flow chlorine gas through it. Stannic chloride will condense in the outflow. That
actually seems easier than anything but in situ aluminum chloride.
You could use straight lead free solder which is >90% tin as the other components won't be volatile chlorides at such a low temperature. The usual
'other' components are silver, copper and zinc but other combos are possible.
|
|
chornedsnorkack
National Hazard
Posts: 564
Registered: 16-2-2012
Member Is Offline
Mood: No Mood
|
|
Quote: Originally posted by macckone | You could use straight lead free solder which is >90% tin as the other components won't be volatile chlorides at such a low temperature.
|
Not important. PbCl2 melts at +505 and boils at +950.
Now, PbCl4 is a liquid that freezes at -15. But it decays above 0, and seems to decay completely above +50. It usually is produced from
PbO2, not just chlorination of PbCl2. So does Pb tend to be appreciably volatilized by chlorine as PbCl4 vapours?
|
|
Eddygp
National Hazard
Posts: 858
Registered: 31-3-2012
Location: University of York, UK
Member Is Offline
Mood: Organometallic
|
|
I'm thinking some kind of trialkylborane might work? Alternatively there might be a way to synthesise an ionic liquid with a borane on the sidechain,
dodging the problem of volatility straight away while being a liquid.
there may be bugs in gfind
[ˌɛdidʒiˈpiː] IPA pronunciation for my Username
|
|
Heptylene
Hazard to Others
Posts: 319
Registered: 22-10-2016
Member Is Offline
Mood: No Mood
|
|
Yes that's true, but boron tribromide is particularly reactive. I assume this is the case for most liquid Lewis acids. I've seen it used in
the lab (not by me) and you get a large cloud of HBr and boric acid in the air very rapidly.
|
|