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Chemistry Forums for Students => Organic Chemistry Forum => Topic started by: johniemi on November 07, 2012, 01:27:37 AM

Title: How to get H2O out of Benzyl Alcohol?
Post by: johniemi on November 07, 2012, 01:27:37 AM

I have benzyl alcohol but it looks like some water has condensed in the bottle due to humidity and extreme fluctuation in storage temperature.

Any ideas how to get water removed from the benzyl alcohol? Will boiling the solution at water boiling point be ok? What will happen to benzyl alcohol at 100-110 celsius?

Title: Re: How to get H2O out of Benzyl Alcohol?
Post by: discodermolide on November 07, 2012, 01:31:28 AM

Benzyl alcohol has a BPt. of 205°C and is a stable compound. So why not just distill the water out.
You did not say how much water you have. You could also stir it with anhydrous sodium sulphate then filter, this will remove smallish amounts of water.

Title: Re: How to get H2O out of Benzyl Alcohol?
Post by: Schrödinger on November 08, 2012, 08:00:33 AM

I used to purify methanol using the Magnesium ribbon method. I used to cut up Mg turnings into tiny pieces, treat them with con. HCl repeatedly and then set them to dry in the oven. Then took a flask to reflux the methanol, added the 'activated' Mg pieces, and a tiny amount of I₂ and started the reflux. Worked pretty well with MeOH and EtOH. Will this work just fine with BzOH as well?

Of course this was probably preferred with MeOH and EtOH because of the much lower boiling point as against Benzyl alcohol as discodermolide said.