Chloroform
Chloroform
Chloroform is a sickly, sweet-smelling, colorless liquid,
b.p. 61oC. it is sparingly soluble in water but readily soluble in
ethanol and ether. It does not burn in air under usual conditions, but its
vapour may be ignited, when it burns with a green-edged flame. According to
Hine, chloroform undergoes alkaline hydrolysis to produce the formate ion and
carbon monoxide by what Hine calls the alpha-elimination mechanism: this
involves the removal of hydrogen and chloride ions from the same carbon atom.
Preparation of Chloroform
Chloroform may be prepared in the laboratory or industrially
by heating ethanol or acetone with bleaching powder, or with chlorine and
alkali (yield about 40 per cent). The reaction is extremely complicated, and
the mechanism is obscure.
The equations usually given for the action of bleaching
powder on ethanol are: (i) oxidation of ethanol to acetaldehyde; (ii)
chlorination of acetaldehyde to trichloroacetaldehyde; (iii) decomposition of
trichloroacetaldehyde (choral) by free calcium hydroxide (present in the
bleaching powder) into chloroform and formic acid:
(i)
CH3CH2OH +Cl2 → CH3CHO + 2HCl
(ii)
CH3CHO +
3Cl2 → CCl3CHO +
3HCl
(iii)
2CCl3CHO +
Ca(OH)2 → 2CHCl3 +
(HCO2)2Ca
When acetone is used, the first product given is
trichloroacetone, which is then decomposed by the calcium hydroxide into
chloroform and acetic acid:
(i)
CH3COCH3 +
3Cl2 → CCl3COCH3 +
3HCl
(ii)
2CCl3COCH3 +
Ca(OH)2 → 2CHCl3 +
(CH3CO2)2Ca
Chloroform is also prepared industrially by the
chlorination of methane.
Reaction of Chloroform
When chloroform is treated with zinc and hydrogen chloride
in ethanolic solution, methylene dichloride (q.v.) is obtained; when
treated with zinc and water, methane is obtained:
When chloroform is warmed with silver powder, acetylene is
obtained:
2CHCl3
+ 6Ag → C2H2
+ 6AgCl
When treated with concentrated nitric acid, chloroform forms
chloropicrin:
CHCl3
+ HNO3 → CCl3NO2
+ H2O
Chloropicrin or nitrochloroform (liquid, b.p. 112oC)
is used as an insecticide, and has been used as a war-gas. Chloroform adds onto
the carbonyl group of ketones in the presence of potassium hydroxide, e.g.,
with acetone it forms chloretone (colorless needless, m.p.97oC),
which is used as a drug. The mechanism is possibly:
use of Chloroform
Chloroform has been used in surgery as an anesthetic, and
for this purpose it has to be pure. In the presence of air and light,
chloroform slowly forms carbonyl chloride, which is extremely poisonous:
Chlorine, water and carbon dioxide are also produced. Anesthetic
chloroform was therefore kept in well-Stoppard dark-brown bottles. Ethanol was
also added but its function is not quite clear. According to some authors, it
retards the decomposition of the chloroform. This is supported by the fact that
infra-red measurements of such mixtures show that absence of the carbonyl
frequency.
A delicate test for chloroform is the ‘isocyanide test’. This
is carried out by heating chloroform with ethanolic potassium hydroxide and
aniline, whereby phenyl isocyanide is formed, and is readily detected by its
nauseating odor.
CHCl3
+ 3KOH + C6H5NH2 → C6H5NC
+ 3KCl + 3H2O
Chloroform is widely used in industry as a solvent for fats,
waxes, resins, rubber, etc.
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