[Nekromantis]

Hi:)

I need to know how to make a diethyl ether from ethanol and sulphuric acid. Please help me 

[Honclbrif]

Is this for a problem? What have you worked out so far?

[Nekromantis]

Is this for a problem? What have you worked out so far?

I know that i must heat a mixture of ethanol and sulphuric acid in 120 C. The next step is destillation. How many ingridients do I have to add? And how long do I have to carry this process out.

[Honclbrif]

Wait, you're actually trying to make diethyl ether?

I'm not going to help you with that. I'm a little opposed to giving advice to people who I can't confirm are working in labs with proper safety equipment and procedures. I'll go as far as to recommend checking out the chemistry at home forum and for the love of god, avoid open flames at all costs.

[Nekromantis]

Wait, you're actually trying to make diethyl ether?

I'm not going to help you with that. I'm a little opposed to giving advice to people who I can't confirm are working in labs with proper safety equipment and procedures. I'll go as far as to recommend checking out the chemistry at home forum and for the love of god, avoid open flames at all costs.

Im studying chemistry for 3 years and I did't find anything about it in Vogel or any other book in polish language because i from Poland. We must search process on our own.

[OC pro]

Google is your best friend.

[nox]

Trust me, it's near impossible to get an ether high, and the bitterness is overpowering at high concentrations. (sadly yes I actually did try to get high off ether vapor)

[nj_bartel]

I think the primary concern is more along the lines of explosive vapors and meth mills, as opposed to people trying to anesthetize themselves.

[manofohm]

Ether synthesis on the small scale is incredibly dangerous due to ones inability to control the reaction temperatures. If you have studied the processes for making ether by dehydration you then know that at a high temperature you begin to create more ethene gas (anything over what seems to be exactly 150 C) which is far more dangerous than the ether itself (unless of course peroxides have precipitated out of the ether). The only safe way of producing the ether is in large reactors (22L+) with indirect heating (By the way these cost in the upwards of about 6 grand). It would seem contradictory that more sulfuric acid, more ethanol, and more ether would be less dangerous, but when a reaction gets to hot the by products are something to trully be scared of.

I will consider this section for informational use only, I highly recomend not making ether yourself unless you have all the safety and know how.

As for the reaction it requires dry sulfuric acid dry ethanol and lots of boiling surface area( chips get gunked up quick) You will be left with a good deal of sulfuric acid waste. For the love of god do not dump this, go to the store and buy a 55 pound bag of hydrated lime ($5.00) and nutralize your waste or better yet find a hazmat service. lime and sulfuric acid will make calcium sulfate make sure you dilute the sulfuric acid with water first or you may A: start a fire or B: produce nasty gas. Add the calcium hydroxide slowly and stir eventually no more will react.

Basically all the rest of the information is out there this is just my input for those interested in knowing.

I am not just part of a company trying to scare you out of making something we already make, I legitimatly dont want inexperienced chemists to end their carreers early over a seemingly easy but actually difficult process.

[Arkcon]

Neither do we.  Please note the original posting was from a year ago, so no one really needed the specifics, we've made that part of the Forum Rules{click}

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