[speen]

There are several methods for doing this synthesis, the most straightforward probably the williamson ether synthesis. I believe that I understand the synthesis in theory, but how could i make this product outside of the lab with chemicals that I have access to? A big problem I have is how would I isolate the final product?
Another name is glycerol trimethyl ether.

Thanks ahead for any *delete me*

[speen]

I guess more specifically, how could i isolate the ether product out of a solution of sodium chloride and water?

[zaphraud]

There are several methods for doing this synthesis, the most straightforward probably the williamson ether synthesis. I believe that I understand the synthesis in theory, but how could i make this product outside of the lab with chemicals that I have access to? A big problem I have is how would I isolate the final product?
Another name is glycerol trimethyl ether.

Thanks ahead for any *delete me*

Have you tried the obvious yet, like popping glycerol + methanol on silica in the microwave and heating it? You can do amazing stuff in the microwave when you use a silica substrate..

google: silica microwave chemistry

If that doesn't work, consider additional options for excluding the generated water from the reaction, like inclusion of a related compound, like say purified fat? Just watch out for transesterification reactions, you might get some biodiesel as a side product if you add fat?

I guess more specifically, how could i isolate the ether product out of a solution of sodium chloride and water?

Welllll, what are the contaminants in question suspected to be?

What happens if you add isopropanol to this, then add enough more salt to force a separation of layers?

[Åke]

Hey zaphraud!

What you're saying sounds really interesting. I did a web-search as you suggested, but I found nothing relevant. Do you happen to have any relevant references to share?

Thanks,

Vedran

[speen]

Thanks very much for the reply. This does seem very interesting and I had not heard of this but similarly, I was unable to find some quality resources. I like the purified fat idea but I don't know how effective that will be and it also comes with other problems. The most promising would be the separation of layers by adding salt. What would be the mechanism for adding the isopropanol?

[speen]

Using the silica wouldn't eliminate the main side products of simply heating glycerol and methanol together, it eliminates the solvent but not the E2 and E1 elimination products that come as a result of this on the secondary carbon. Ideally I would use a strong base or sodium or potassium to create the alkoxide from glycerol and react it with chloromethane, hopefully leaving only sodium chloride and water as byproducts (in a perfect reaction). I have two problems, I dont have great access to the chemicals that requires and then as you spoke of before I would need to separate the ether from the solution. Thank you for your recommendations, anything else would also be greatly appreciated, I will continue to look into the microwave chemistry and also using separation techniques and let you know how it goes.

[zaphraud]

Hey zaphraud!

What you're saying sounds really interesting. I did a web-search as you suggested, but I found nothing relevant. Do you happen to have any relevant references to share?

Thanks,

Vedran

A good starter:
How Could and Do Microwaves Influence Chemistry at Interfaces?
Wm. Curtis Conner* and Geoffrey A. Tompsett
Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts 01003
Received: September 18, 2007; In Final Form: October 22, 2007

..more or less as of 2007, the best way to find out whats gonna happen in a particular microwave reaction is just to try it.

Strange stuff is possible; for example in this paper one interesting thing discussed is the roughly 200K difference in temperature between benzene and methanol with the two are heated by microwave within a zeolite. This is a huge, not typically seen difference between the temperatures of two very tiny concentrations of reagent that for all practical purposes, takes the usual "rules of thumb" that people so cherish from thermodynamics, and upends them completely.

Also, given the fact that this otherwise highly sophisticated heating tool has become dirt-cheap due to commonplace use in the home kitchen, there is not really any reason to just go on ignoring it as a source of pesky anomalies.

The home microwave furnace stands to change humanities ability to manipulate chemistry as much as the invention of fire did.

--

I dug up a ref for someone making ethylbenzene with benzene, ethanol, and zeolite at elevated temperatures. FWIW, one of the best ways to heat reagents in zeolite is with microwaves, because of their awesome penetrating power thru that otherwise insulating catalyst.

[Embark04]

I'm just curious as to why you are making this at home in the first place?