Acetophenone → 1,1-Diphenylethylene

Participants

Reaction Steps

Crude DPE (Aldrich or from reaction of phenylmagnesium bromide with acetophenone, acetylation with acetic anhydride and thermal elimination of acetic acid) is distilled through a column having at least 50 theoretical plates (spinning-band column; a Sulzer packed column for larger amounts) to a purity of 99.8%. The usually slightly yellow distillate is filtered through a 20 cm Alox column (Woelm alumina for chromatography, anhydrous), titrated with 1.5N sec-butyllithium to a deep red color and distilled off over a simple still head under reduced pressure (1 mbar). The resulting product is completely colorless and can be used directly in the anionic polymerization.

Provenance & Evidence