Structure, Properties, and Sources of Ethers

Diethyl ether and other simple symmetrical ethers are prepared industrially by the sulfuric acid-catalyzed dehydration of alcohols  

The reaction occurs by Sn2 displacement of water from a protonated ethane molecule by the oxygen atom of a second ethanol. 

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The occurrence in many polyglycosiduronic acids of relatively resistant linkages, usually those between uronic acid residues and adjacent residues, has resulted in the isolation of several aldobiouronic acids on graded hydrolysis of acidic polysaccharides. The isolation of such aldobiouronic acids, and subsequent conversion to their fully methylated derivatives, has become a standard procedure in structural studies on polyglycosiduronic acids, especially those of plant gums and mucilages.1 In other cases, partially methylated aldobiouronic acids have been isolated from the hydrolyzates of methylated polysaccharides. The sources and methods of isolation of the methyl ethers of aldobiouronic acids so far examined are given in Table I. Some properties of derivatives are recorded in Table Y. 

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