Abstract
FOR anæsthetic purposes a pure diethyl ether is now generally recognised as a desideratum. An opportunity recently arose for carrying out some ex-periments on the bromine absorption of commercial anæsthetic ethers, a standard solution of bromine in glacial acetic acid being added, and light excluded to avoid direct substitution of the ether by bromine. The products from six manufacturers absorbed bromine to different extents, as is shown by the following figures:—A, 0.6; B, 2.5; C, 7.5; D, 11.6; E, 13.6; F, 15.9. These are the numbers of c.c. of deci-normal bromine absorbed by 100 c.c. of the different ethers in the dark in one hour, which in the absence of aldehydes give a measure of he degree of unsaturation of the ethers. On examination of the bromination products of 2250 c.c. of ether C, among other constituents which are being further examined there was identified, as a major product, αβ-dibromovinylethyl ether (1 gram), which must have arisen from vinylethyl ether, CH2: CH . O . CH2 . CH3, b.p. 35°.5, present in the original ether. Vinylethyl ether was also present to a similar extent in freshly prepared ether, direct from the manufacturing still, which had never been exposed to light. It doubtless owes its origin to vinyl alcohol (acetaldehyde) functioning in the same way as ethyl alcohol in the Williamson process.
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KING, H. An Unrecorded Constituent of Commercial Ethyl Ether. Nature 120, 843 (1927). https://doi.org/10.1038/120843b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/120843b0
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