Chemical Forums
Specialty Chemistry Forums => Citizen Chemist => Topic started by: billnotgatez on October 30, 2005, 11:58:28 PM
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Could some of my fellow forum members post how they would convert ethanol to ethane or ethene?
It would be nice if the process could be done at room temperature and pressure.
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It's possible!
Take a big test tube and put some aluminium oxide (it works as a catalyst) Al2O3 in it. now add some mililiters of ethanol and heat.
H H
| |
H-C-C-O-H ------Al2O3+ Heat ---->
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H H
H H
\ /
-----------> C=C + H2O
/ \
H H
http://www.chemguide.co.uk/organicprops/alkenes/making.html#top
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Thank you for the post and the link.
Any other ideas from anyone?
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Do you mean another way to make ethene from ethanol or making ethene with other methods?
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Currently I am just interested in Ethane or Ethene from Ethanol. Is there more than one approach to this problem? The aluminum oxide procedure may lend itself to solar heat, which is intriguing.
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It seems to me that Mike and some of the others could join the fray :)
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hydroxyl groups are poor leaving groups so reduction of alcohols is rarely done in one step.
You could try tosylating the alcohol (OH) and then reacting with LiAlH4
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You could possibly dehydrate the alcohol with an acid catalyst. I am not sure how practical this is for you example, you could probably drive the equilibrium by removing product(?)
haha, I just noticed that alberto's link said the same thing :D
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Mabye you can make ethane just by adding sodium hydride to ethanol:
C2H6O + NaH -----> C2H6 + NaOH
Beware: You should make it in absenge of water (oh well, a total absence of water is impossible, but If you make this reaction use pure ethanol)
NaH + H2O -----> NaOH + H2(g)
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interesting thing about converting ethanol to ethane is on how one would collect the ethane (-88.6C boiling point). Not an org chem major by the way.
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Here is how I would collect the ethane:
http://www.chemguide.co.uk/organicprops/alkenes/making.html#top
(The picture shows how to collect ethene, but It´s the same for ethane)
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That's a really good website, btw.
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On that web site – in the diagram – they have “mineral wool soaked in ethanol”
Why?
What is mineral wool?
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When searching on this site for tosylat – I found this entry by Movies
http://www.chemicalforums.com/index.php?board=3;action=display;threadid=850;start=msg7151#msg7151
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mineral_wool
After reading the above site I sort of understand what mineral wool is.
I wonder if they are using the condition version and why they are soaking mineral wool with the ethanol.
On a separate note, I think I have the alumina (aluminum oxide?) from a ceramics store, but I have to confirm the composition.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phosphoric_acid
Concentrated phosphoric (V) acid, H3PO4 seems to be a good catalyst for this conversion as well.