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Chemistry Forums for Students => Organic Chemistry Forum => Topic started by: lukas.stib on July 12, 2020, 04:22:45 AM

Title: How many water to basic hydrolysis diethyl oxalate?
Post by: lukas.stib on July 12, 2020, 04:22:45 AM

Hello chemists,

I have diethyl oxalate unnecessarily, and I want to make alcohol from it by basic hydrolysis. I will use 200 g of diethyl oxalate, and according to the stoichiometry I should use 109.4 g of NaOH (I will use a slight excess of about 50 g, so 160 g in total). Then I will reflux for about 2 or 3 hours and distill off the alcohol. The question is, how many ml or g of water should I use to dissolve of 160 g NaOH? I've read that a NAOH solution should always be used for hydrolysis, but I don't know how much.

Thank you very much, chemists. Lukáš S.

Title: Re: How many water to basic hydrolysis diethyl oxalate?
Post by: rolnor on July 12, 2020, 08:53:03 AM

The hydrolysis will probably be exothermic, you dont need reflux. I would use 500ml water. Be carefull when dissolving NaOH, it will get very hot, maybe boiling.

Title: Re: How many water to basic hydrolysis diethyl oxalate?
Post by: lukas.stib on July 12, 2020, 09:05:48 AM

When I read about the theory of ester hydrolysis, recommended reflux for a few hours.

OK, 500 ml water, thank you.