An Experimental Modification to the Preparation of di-n-butyl ether from 1-butanol for the Undergraduate Teaching Course of Organic Laboratory

Weiqian Liao¹, Wushuang Lou¹, Weihua Jin¹, Shikun Li¹, Hui Mao¹ and Yihui Bai^1,

¹Department of Chemistry and Life Sciences, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua 321004, China

Cite this paper

Weiqian Liao, Wushuang Lou, Weihua Jin, Shikun Li, Hui Mao and Yihui Bai. An Experimental Modification to the Preparation of di-n-butyl ether from 1-butanol for the Undergraduate Teaching Course of Organic Laboratory. World Journal of Chemical Education. 2022; 10(1):46-50. doi: 10.12691/WJCE-10-1-6

Abstract

To explore a greener and safer experimental preparation method for di-n-butyl ether, a modification to the preparation of di-n-butyl ether from 1-butanol was used in this study by replacing the traditional concentrated sulfuric acid as the catalyst with p-toluenesulfonic acid under the guidance of computational calculations. The effects of reaction temperature, catalyst quantity, and other parameters on the reaction were investigated. The catalyst's recovery and reuse were explored. The results reveal that p-toluenesulfonic acid has a catalytic efficiency comparable to that of concentrated sulfuric acid in this experiment, that it is safer and easier to operate, and that it can be recovered and reused using simple procedures, which meets the requirements of green chemistry. The findings of this study may be utilized to enhance the di-n-butyl ether preparation experiment, which can be used in the Organic Chemistry Laboratory course at colleges.

Keywords

experimental modification, preparation, di-n-dibutyl ether, p-toluenesulfonic acid, green chemistry

Copyright

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

References

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