Category: Synthesis

  • 6-Benzylazulene

    6-Benzylazulene

    Here, I and some (rather prominent) friends made a mostly unknown Azulene derivative.

  • Synthesis of CuO-Ag₂O Mixed Oxide Catalyst for Aldehyde Oxidation

    Synthesis of CuO-Ag₂O Mixed Oxide Catalyst for Aldehyde Oxidation

    In my quest for modifications of the seemingly new azo dye I have made before, I want to use vanillyl alcohol and vanillic acid as coupling partners for diazotized 5-amino-2-naphthalenesulfonic acid. While the synthesis of vanillyl alcohol from vanillin is straight forward, making vanillic acid is a bit more tricky. Two methods have been published…

  • Synthesis of 4-(Hydroxymethyl)-2-methoxyphenol (Vanillyl Alcohol)

    Synthesis of 4-(Hydroxymethyl)-2-methoxyphenol (Vanillyl Alcohol)

    In my previous experiment, I synthesized an azo dye. While that worked well and the dye gave some pretty colors depending on the pH, it does not seem to be stable under moderately acidic conditions. I suspect that the aldehyde group of the vanillin substructure is the culprit, and while there are several ways to…

  • Synthesis of Sodium 5-(vanillyl-5-azo)-napthalene-2-sulfonate

    Synthesis of Sodium 5-(vanillyl-5-azo)-napthalene-2-sulfonate

    Azo compounds are one of the most versatile class of dyes. Their discovery changed history, making some people incredibly rich and some others poor in return. intriguing properties are the ease of synthesizing them as well as the vast range of reagent combinations and therefore range of colours attainable. The high versatility of viable starting…

  • Synthesis of Methyl Iodide

    Synthesis of Methyl Iodide

    Methyl iodide is probably the most common methylating agent used in chemistry to this day. Unfortunately it is so good at it’s job that it also likes methylating your DNA, which has been found to be unhealthy in the long run. It is not advisable to keep larger quantities in stock, since it is unstable…

  • Synthesis of Aluminium Isopropoxide

    Synthesis of Aluminium Isopropoxide

    Here I made some aluminium isopropoxide, which is a useful catalyst for both reductions of ketones and aldehydes to alcohols and vice versa. The selectivity for ketones and aldehydes in reductions, as well as the lacking overoxidation make this a great substance to have around in both hobby and professional labs. This procedure is mostly…

  • Synthesis of Ethyl Benzoate

    Synthesis of Ethyl Benzoate

    For this project I decided to make some ethyl benzoate. Not only does it smell quite nice (in my opinion), but it can also be used as a building block or solvent in some organic reactions. My intention is to make benzoylated cellulose, a chiral stationary phase that was used in chromatography back in the…