Triflic Acid - 1-12-2020 at 10:26
Would decarboxylating Sodium trichloroacetate at high temperatures create chloroform with OTC* reagents? This would avoid using gallons of bleach to
make 10ml of chloroform.
* In some places, Trichloroacetic acid can be bought for skin care
Maurice VD 37 - 1-12-2020 at 12:58
Use bleaching powder instead of bleach. Bleaching powder is made of calcium hypochlorite Ca(ClO)2, which usually contains also some CaCl2. But this
impurity does not disrupt the action of calcium hypochlorite on acetone. And you don't need gallons of liquid to do it.
Triflic Acid - 1-12-2020 at 14:15
But that doesn't answer the question, would this work? It would be a nice way of making fluoroform too, assuming you can get trifluoroacetic acid. And
also, can't the trichloroacetic acid be converted to the trifluoro version with sodium fluoride.
[Edited on 1-12-2020 by Triflic Acid]
Boffis - 1-12-2020 at 14:25
I believe Chemplayer made a video of the preparation of chloroform from trichloroacetic acid. However, the later is not exactly OTC and is
considerably more expensive than either bleach, bleaching powder or acetone. If you happen to have a large drum full of trichloracetic acid then you
can simply distill it and obtain chloroform.