Originally posted by Boomer
....But now that problem has been fixed. Sodium ethyl sulfate can be easily prepared in the home laboratory from common sodium bisulfate found in pool
pH down and 95% pure grain alcohol, and baking soda or sodium carbonate found in pH up.
113 parts by weight of sodium bisulfate and 20 parts by weight of pure grain alcohol are combined in a flask and brought to boiling upon which time
the sodium bisulfate crystals disappear and sodium sulfate forms.
When the reaction has been completed, the flask was is immersed in an ice bath and vigorously stirred until the tempurature rapidly goes below 32.3C.
The formed sodium sulfate is thus filtered out leaving an anhydrous ethyl hydrogen sulfate/ethanol mix.
The excess ethanol is distilled off, and the ethyl hydrogen sulfate is neutralized with an appropriate quantity of sodium carbonate leaving sodium
ethyl sulfate.
Simple... thats all there is to it! The secret to how it works is the excess sodium bisulfate when rapidly cooled below 32.3C forms the decahydrate,
or Glaubers salt, and this sucks the water out of the reaction.
This is discussed futher in US Patent number 3,024,263. |