Reaction with Ferric Chloride

The most generally used method (Warburg manometric method) depends on the evolution of carbon dioxide from bicarbonate solutions when acetic acid is produced by hydrolysis of acetylcholine (3). The conversion of acetylcholine and certain other esters into the corresponding hy-droxamic acids when treated with hydroxylamine has been described by Hestrin (42) and a photometric method, depending on the ferric chloride reaction with acetic acid, has been reported by Abdon and Uvnas (1). A later report by Mitchell and Clark (61) involves the colorimetric measure-... 

Colorations or coloured precipitates are frequently given by the reaction of ferric chloride solution with.(i) solutions of neutral salts of acids, (ii) phenols and many of their derivatives, (iii) a few amines. If a free acid is under investigation it must first be neutralised as follows Place about 01 g. of the acid in a boiling-tube and add a slight excess of ammonia solution, i,e., until the solution is just alkaline to litmus-paper. Add a piece of unglazed porcelain and boil until the odour of ammonia is completely removed, and then cool. To the solution so obtained add a few drops of the "neutralised ferric chloride solution. Perform this test with the following acids and note the result ... 

Ferric salts are reddish brown and ferrous salts colorless in dilute solutions.) Dilute 1 c.c. of ferric chloride solution with 3 c.c. of water and add some of your original solution drop by drop till a change of color occurs. (6) What was the change in color (7) Write an equation for the reaction. (8) What kind of change has the tin compound undergone (9) As what kind of an agent has it acted ... 

Pyridoxal, pyridoxamine and pyridoxine all show the typical reactions of an aromatic phenol unsubstituted fara to the phenolic group. In sufficient concentration they thus show reddish colors on addition of ferric chloride, couple with diazotized sulfanilic acid to yield orange to red-colored products, and with 2,6-dichloroquinone chlorimide to yield blue indophenols. The latter two reactions have been used for the quantitative estimation of vitamin Be imfortunately, other phenols occur in many products and the three forms of the vitamin do not, in general, yield equal color values. 

Cholesterol detectable solution... In the previous experiment the cholesterol content of the solution was determined by the ferric chloride reaction. The method lacks reproducibility. The most versatile method of cholesterol detection is with an enzyme. In this paper a one step enzymatic method called the COD-DAOS color... 

The diazo reagents have the most general application for phenolic compounds. The quinone reagent tends to be hypersensitive. Ammoniacal silver nitrate is convenient for dihydric and aminophenols, since most monohydric phenols do not reduce this reagent. The ferric chloride reaction is not very sensitive. Potassium carbonate is useful for nitrophenols which give a yellow color with this reagent. 

A microbiological assay is the method of choice (see p. 813) but spectro-photometric methods are also applicable. One spectrophotometric method is based on the formation of a yellow colour with an absorption maximum at 380 m//, when tetracycline is dissolved in 0-25N sodium hydroxide, another on the orange-brown colour (maximum absorption 490 m//) formed on mixing a dilute hydrochloric acid solution of the sample with ferric chloride solution. The former method which is described below is also applicable to oxytetracycline but not to chlortetracycline while the ferric chloride reaction, which is given in detail under oxytetracycline, applies to all three. 

In early designs, the reaction heat typically was removed by cooling water. Crude dichloroethane was withdrawn from the reactor as a liquid, acid-washed to remove ferric chloride, then neutralized with dilute caustic, and purified by distillation. The material used for separation of the ferric chloride can be recycled up to a point, but a purge must be done. This creates waste streams contaminated with chlorinated hydrocarbons which must be treated prior to disposal. 

The problem with the fiowsheet shown in Fig. 10.5 is that the ferric chloride catalyst is carried from the reactor with the product. This is separated by washing. If a reactor design can be found that prevents the ferric chloride leaving the reactor, the effluent problems created by the washing and neutralization are avoided. Because the ferric chloride is nonvolatile, one way to do this would be to allow the heat of reaction to raise the reaction mixture to the boiling point and remove the product as a vapor, leaving the ferric chloride in the reactor. Unfortunately, if the reaction mixture is allowed to boil, there are two problems ... 

Reactions of Aspirin, (i) Distinction from Salicylic acid. Shake up with water in two clean test-tubes a few crystals of a) salicylic acid, (0) aspirin, a very dilute aqueous solution of each substance being thus obtained. Note that the addition of i drop of ferric chloride solution to (a) gives an immediate purple coloration, due to the free —OH group, whereas (b) gives no coloration if the aspirin is pure. 

Reactions and colorations with ferric chloride solution. 

Section 7. Reactions and colorations with aqueous Ferric Chloride solution. 

Ferric chloride solution sometimes contains a large excess of HCl which would interfere with the following reactions. If it is very markedly acidic add dil. NaOH solution, drop by drop, to the ferric chloride solution until a small but permanent precipitate of ferric hydroxide is obtained. Filter this off through a small fluted filter paper, and use the clear filtrate. The latter is still not quite neutral owing to hydrolysis, but this feeble acidity does not interfere with the tests given below. 

Aqueous solutions give with ferric chloride the characteristic reactions of the neutral salt of the acid (p. 348). Identify the carboxylic acids by the tests already given (Section 14, p. 347), or by the preparation of one of the crystalline derivatives below. 

Aqueous solutions (when obtainable) give no reaction with ferric chloride. This is an important distinction from ammonium salts (sec above). Salicylamide, being also a phenol, is however an exception (p. 344). 

In an alternative procedure 26 g. of anhydrous ferric chloride replace the aluniiniuni chloride, the mixture is cooled to 10°, and the 50 g. of tert.-butyl chloride is added. The mixture is slowly warmed to 25° and maintained at this temperature until no more hydrogen chloride is evolved. The reaction mixture is then washed with dilute hydrochloric acid and with water, dried and fractionally distilled. The yield of tert.-butyl benzene, b.p. 167- 170°, is 60 g. 

Other acetyl chloride preparations include the reaction of acetic acid and chlorinated ethylenes in the presence of ferric chloride [7705-08-0] (29) a combination of ben2yl chloride [100-44-7] and acetic acid at 85% yield (30) conversion of ethyUdene dichloride, in 91% yield (31) and decomposition of ethyl acetate [141-78-6] by the action of phosgene [75-44-5] producing also ethyl chloride [75-00-3] (32). The expense of raw material and capital cost of plant probably make this last route prohibitive. Chlorination of acetic acid to monochloroacetic acid [79-11-8] also generates acetyl chloride as a by-product (33). Because acetyl chloride is cosdy to recover, it is usually recycled to be converted into monochloroacetic acid. A salvage method in which the mixture of HCl and acetyl chloride is scmbbed with H2SO4 to form acetyl sulfate has been patented (33). 

Because of isomerization, alkylation of benzene with tertiary alkyl haUdes can also yield secondary alkylbenzenes rather than only tertiary alkylbenzenes (20). For example, the / fAhexylbenzene, which is first formed by the reaction of benzene with 2-chloro-2,3-dimethylbutane and AlCl isomerizes largely to 2,2-dimethyl-3-phenylbutane by a 1,2-CH2 shift. With ferric chloride as the catalyst, / fAhexylbenzene does not undergo isomerization and is isolated as such. 

An equihbrium mixture of the isomers usually contains a much higher proportion of the tme nitro compound. The equiUbrium for each isomeric system is influenced by the dielectric strength and the hydrogen-acceptor characteristics of the solvent medium. The aci form is dissolved and neutralized rapidly by strong bases, and gives characteristic color reactions with ferric chloride. 

Phosphates and siUcates of metals often react with phosgene at elevated temperatures and yield the metal chloride and phosphoms oxychloride or sihcon dioxide. The reaction with ferric phosphate at 300—350°C has been proposed as a synthetic method for phosphoms oxychloride, POCl. ... 

Oxidative coupling of aromatic compounds via the SchoU reaction has been appHed successhiUy to synthesise a polyarylethersulfone (18). High molecular weight polymer was obtained upon treating 4,4 -di(l-naphthoxy)diphenylsulfone and 4,4 -di(l-naphthoxy)ben2ophenone with ferric chloride. Equimolar amounts of the Lewis acid are required and the method is limited to naphthoxy-based monomers and other systems that can undergo the SchoU reaction. 

Direct Chlorination of Ethylene. Direct chlorination of ethylene is generally conducted in Hquid EDC in a bubble column reactor. Ethylene and chlorine dissolve in the Hquid phase and combine in a homogeneous catalytic reaction to form EDC. Under typical process conditions, the reaction rate is controlled by mass transfer, with absorption of ethylene as the limiting factor (77). Ferric chloride is a highly selective and efficient catalyst for this reaction, and is widely used commercially (78). Ferric chloride and sodium chloride [7647-14-5] mixtures have also been utilized for the catalyst (79), as have tetrachloroferrate compounds, eg, ammonium tetrachloroferrate [24411-12-9] NH FeCl (80). The reaction most likely proceeds through an electrophilic addition mechanism, in which the catalyst first polarizes chlorine, as shown in equation 5. The polarized chlorine molecule then acts as an electrophilic reagent to attack the double bond of ethylene, thereby faciHtating chlorine addition (eq. 6) ... 

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