Metaldehyde, preparation

Like paraldehyde, metaldehyde can be preserved, and, when freshly prepared, is odourless. It also has no aldehydic properties. On keeping, however, a distinct odour of acetaldehyde becomes evident —a sign that here also an equilibrium is slowly being established. Metaldehyde can be completely depolymerised by heating. Molecular weight determinations (in phenol) show that metaldehyde is tetra-molecular (Hantzsch) the examination of the space lattice of crystals by the method of Laue and Bragg points to the same conclusion (Mark). 

Metaldehyde is prepared on a technical scale for use as fuel ( solid methylated spirits ). 

Fulminate can be prepared from acetaldehyde instead of from alcohol, and from substances which are convertible into acetaldehyde, such as paraldehyde, metaldehyde, dimethyl- and diethyl-acetal. Methyl alcohol, formaldehyde, propyl alcohol, butyralde-hyde, glycol, and glyoxal do not yield fulminate. ... 

When cyclopentanecarbaldehyde is prepared, it is a colourless liquid. On standing, particularly with traces of acid, it forms the crystalline trimer. The trimer is a stable six-membered heterocycle with all substituents equatorial Acetaldehyde (ethanal) forms a liquid trimer called paraldehyde , which reverts to the monomer on distillation with catalytic acid. More interesting is metaldehyde , the common slug poison, which is an all-as tetramer (2,4,6,8-tetramethyl-l,3,5,7-tetroxocane) formed from acetaldehyde with dry HC1 at below 0°C. Metaldehyde is a white crystalline solid that has all the methyl groups pseudoequatorial, and it reverts to acetaldehyde on heating. 

Cyclic polysiloxanes. Particular interest attaches to the configurations of these molecules, for the related carbon compounds paraldehyde and metaldehyde have puckered rings. The true silicon analogue of paraldehyde, tri-methylcyclo-trisiloxane, has been prepared but its structure is not known. 

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