surprised by dichloroacetylene

Dichloroacetylene is a truly nasty compound... Not only does it cause lung damage, but also nerve damage. That is, if it doesn't catch fire first. As you noticed, it is very pyrophoric, and reactions to produce it are usually done under inert atmosphere. Still, because of its easy production, I'm sure we could find some mad-science use for it...it's actually a very interesting compound.

Maybe if anything, it could be used as a pyrophoric ignition source for vapor cloud experiments...but that's getting into practical use.

I once had a wacky idea of making some Dichloroacetylene in a sealed container, and then calling it "An Angry Genie."

How about reaction with AgNO3 to try to make dinitroacetylene. Although my 'Nitrocarbons' book says that despite numerous attempts that compound has never been syntheised.

Some information on dichloroacetylene

That link says dichloroacetylene is a liquid and that when it boils it explodes But it doesn't list a boiling or decomposition point, I guess it doesn't matter as if you tried to make it you would want to keep it at as low a temperature as possible whenever possible just because of the volitility of it and the nerological impairments it can cause and of course the fact that it is spontaneously flamable in the presence of O2.

After reading Samosa's idea for the angry genie I can't help but think of the dichloroacetylene shooting out and taking form questioning of Polverone "You summoned me?'' And then Polverone promptly freaking out and drowning the mix with water and the 'genie' giving a death cry

[Edited on 5/26/2004 by BromicAcid]

Interesting.
Anyway, to get the dinitroacetylene, I guess it should be the silvernitrite rather than the nitrate?
Anyway, this seems the most obvious route, hence I doubt it'd work - else they would have isolated that way already! Also, it is possible that the carbide entitiy during the reaction will directly precipiate with the silver ion, forming silver carbide or some derivatives.
I wonder what one could do with it, the dichloroacetylene.
Any solutions containing some Na-salt (ie. alcoholates, acetates) should react to form some rather unusual substances!
What happens in the presence of water? does it form HCl and ethylene? What with alcohol? Questions over questions.
Anyway, very interesting reaction. Good you mention it because I planned to systematically test all my chlorocarbons with NaOH

This thread is new to me and looks quite interesting. I tried the following:

- Take half a ml of trichloroethylene
- Add a spatula of NaOH --> No reaction occurs
- Add a few drops of water --> The NaOH liquefies, the liquid becomes hot, no other changes
- After a few minutes, I added appr. 0.5 ml of ethanol. Still no reaction.

So, I am quite surprised by Polverones observation. Right now I cannot use my DMSO, it is a big and hard chunk of ice at the bottom of the bottle

I'll let the DMSO melt inside in a warmer place, but that takes a loooooong time. I don't want to heat it, because local hot spots may lead to local decomposition and contamination of the product.

[Edited on 26-11-10 by woelen]

Quote: Originally posted by Polverone

The KOH solubility in DMSO seemed poor, and it just accumulated an irregular darkness on the KOH flakes and some darkening of the solution. Addition of trichloroethylene didn't seem to do anything. I decided to add some water to dissolve the KOH and dispose of everything when I was done. The addition of water of course made the mixture hot as the KOH was dissolved, and it was bubbling pretty vigorously. I thought that these bubbles were just localized boiling until suddenly there was a little "fwoomp" and a tongue of smoky orange flame shot out of the test tube. I was so startled I almost dropped it. Some time ago I'd read about dibromoacetylene, the spontaneously flammable and highly toxic product of the reaction between KOH and tribromoethylene, so I very quickly realized that this was probably dichloroacetylene. I dropped the test tube in the sink and flooded it with water, but not before one more burst of flame shot out.