Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Diethyl Zinc possible synthsis?

Steam - 9-4-2014 at 05:37

I am looking to synthesize Diethyl Zinc and after doing a little bit of preliminary googling I found this: http://www.orgsyn.org/demo.aspx?prep=CV2P0184
I am wondering if this is a legitimate procedure for the prep of Diethyl Zinc, also if anyone has done this exprment or has synthesized Diethyl Zinc themselves?

Nota benne, I know about the pyrophoric behavior of Diethyl Zinc and I am equipped to handle this compund in an inert environment.

thesmug - 9-4-2014 at 06:11

Orgsyn is a very trusted website. I wouldn't doubt this procedure.

TheChemiKid - 9-4-2014 at 07:01

I second thesmug, Orgsyn is very well known and trusted. I have found some great syntheses there.

zed - 9-4-2014 at 11:50

It's The Bible.

WGTR - 9-4-2014 at 12:09

J. H. Gladstone
The Copper-Zinc Couple and its Effects

http://books.google.com/books?id=kAYAAAAAMAAJ&pg=RA1-PA1...

Several years back I was interested in the copper-zinc couple, and tried different things with it. I tried a Barbier type reaction using a few drops
of isopropyl bromide and acetone in a test tube. The reaction was pretty vigorous with slight heating and sonication in the ultrasonic cleaner tank.

One thing you could try with this would be the addition of heated ultrasonic agitation. It may enable you to use 100% ethyl bromide instead of the
(more expensive) ethyl iodide. The use of ultrasonics tends to keep the surface of the couple clean and minimize the deleterious effects of moisture.

[Edited on 4-9-2014 by WGTR]

Nicodem - 9-4-2014 at 12:31

Quote: Originally posted by Steam  
Nota benne, I know about the pyrophoric behavior of Diethyl Zinc and I am equipped to handle this compund in an inert environment.

Given that this is obviously the first time you hear about the Organic syntheses journal, I'm pretty much confident that you are bluffing about your abilities to safely deal with such hazardous chemicals. Nobody who has any experience in organic synthesis could remain oblivious of Organic syntheses. And nobody who does not have sufficient experience should deal with highly pyrophoric materials.

If you play with fire...

ProChem - 14-4-2014 at 12:20

I have been an organic chemist for 30 years and not once did I need to or want to make my own diethyl ether. I recommend going to Sigma Aldrich and download the bulletin on handling pyrophoric chemicals. Every time I used this material I had a face shield, fireproof lab coat, rubber gloves (not the disposable ones which are too thin) and a class D fire extinguisher. I use stainless steel cannula, gastight syringe, nitrogen to fill the void by drawing out the solution from the bottle.