Hockeydemon - 30-7-2013 at 11:55
I was hoping to dehydrogenate 1-butanol by heating up a coil of copper wire that I have laying around, and suspending it above a beaker of 1-butanol.
I figured this was fairly easy, and straight forward because of this lab
However when I performed it small scale not much took place. Upon further reading it appears that this process is usually done in a tube furnace with
a inert carrier gas.
Is this an impractical method without having a way to vaporize the alcohol with an inert gas to prevent ignition?
Magpie - 30-7-2013 at 13:59
Here's some interesting reading on attempts to make acetaldehyde:
http://www.sciencemadness.org/talk/viewthread.php?tid=55&...
I suspect making butraldehyde isn't all that easy either.
kch - 4-8-2013 at 18:53
Depending on how badly you need it, you could try this:
-Oxidize primary alcohol to butanoic acid using KMnO4 or Jones'
-Reflux with SOCl2 to butanoyl chloride
-Reduce with NaBH4 over dry ice to give the aldehyde
It's not really economical, but I think it's possible for the amateur to perform
Metacelsus - 5-8-2013 at 14:21
Thionyl chloride, sodium borohydride and dry ice 
? Just use pyridinium
chlorochromate!
It would probably be cheapest to just buy the butyraldehyde.
Also, you could condense acetaldehyde (good luck getting that!) to form crotonaldehyde and hydrogenate it.
http://www.organic-chemistry.org/chemicals/oxidations/pyridi...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crotonaldehyde
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butyraldehyde
[Edit] Added sources
[Edited on 5-8-2013 by Cheddite Cheese]
kch - 5-8-2013 at 17:12
I'm learning here, bear with me 
<!-- bfesser_edit_tag -->[<a href="u2u.php?action=send&username=bfesser">bfesser</a>: removed
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[Edited on 6.8.13 by bfesser]