Bromoacetone manufacture

CH2CI-CO-CH3. Colourless lachrymatory liquid b.p. 119°C. Manufactured by treating propanone with bleaching powder or chlorine. It is used as a tear gas and is usually mixed with the more potent bromoacetone. chloro acids Complex chloroanions are formed by most elements of the periodic table by solution of oxides or chlorides in concentrated hydrochloric acid. Potassium salts are precipitated from solution when potassium chloride is added to a solution of the chloro acid, the free acids are generally unstable. 

French Method. Because of the limited availability of bromine the manufacture of bromoacetone was carried out in France during the war by treating acetone with sodium bromate and sodium chlorate in presence of sulphuric acid instead of by the direct action of bromine on acetone. The following reaction takes place ... 

German Method. The manufacture of bromoacetone in Germany 1 was carried out by treating an aqueous solution of sodium or potassium chlorate with acetone and then adding in small quantities the proper quantity of bromine. 

On the other hand, methyl ethyl ketone, the primary material in the preparation of this war gas, is easily obtainable even in wartime, for it is a by-product in the manufacture of acetone from pyroligneous acid. The monobromo- derivative of methyl ethyl ketone has similar aggressive properties to bromoacetone and was used by both the French and the Germans in the war of 1914-18,... 

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