Benzene - C6H6

[asilentbob]

https://sciencemadness.org/talk/viewthread....?tid=325&page=1

See above for methods proposed by SMDB members and their results.

 

I'm currently distilling:

300g sodium benzoate

200g sodium hydroxide

 

 

I plan to attempt the DMSO decarboxylation in the future sometime.

 

So... Who has made benzene?

Who wants to make benzene?

[asilentbob]

Crude yield looks to be about 120mls... Will re-distill at a later date.

[Swany]

I have distilled some benzene via that route. Nitrated, reduced, and re-nitrated the product and recrystallized to obtain about 12-15g of p-nitroaniline that is sitting in the freezer for further nitration/diazo fun-ness.

 

Whats yours for?

[crazyboy25]

Well I wanted to make some and I still do I had my rig all set but then I realized I have almost no benzoate and even less NaOH I don't want benzene THAT bad but I thought it might be something fun I could do because I thought I had the chemicals.

 

 

Oh and I was going to make pentryl...

[asilentbob]

I want nitrobenzene and aniline quite a bit.

 

Waaaayy back when I wanted tetranitrooxanilide (sp)... it was pretty close to OTC aside from the aniline, though it can be made, though i didn't know that you could make benzene like this back then.

[Mumbles]

Never made it in any significant proportion. I did a small test-tube size batch once and did get some liquid over. At the time I thought it was just water from the NaOH or the benzoate, and that the smell came from some decomposition product. In a very direct way it did. I was expecting it to smell exactly like toluene, and it did not so I didn't think I got benzene.

 

I have this reaction filed away though in the back of my mind should the need for benzene every come up. As already mentioned, it is a very versatile starting material

 

As an aside I get to work with benzene nearly every day in the lab. Good times. Good cancer-y times. Just as a solvent too, not even nitrated. For what reason we don't use toluene or something cheaper/less carcinogenic I do not know.

[nitr0]

Hi. I'm new to the forum and I have a question. What use do you have for benzene?

I have a degree in chemistry, and work in a lab for a living. I have the unfortunate opportunity to work with it on occasion. It's nasty stuff. It's chemical I could do without.

 

I'm just curoius....

[Mumbles]

It serves as a good synthetic starting material for many things. It also serves as kind of a center piece. Having home distilled benzene would be a talking point for us nerdy chemistry types.

 

We use it in the lab as well. To dissolve some equally nasty chemicals. If said chemical gets wet it generates HCN, yay.

[Picric acid DOES taste bitter!]

Ive been planning to make some for use in a small ammount of military-grade napalm (the real deal) and plan distilling it from H2SO4 and NaC6H5 to form Na2SO4 and C6H6. Potentially this would be better than using NaOH, or am i wrong? I have very limited experience with NaC6H5, so any tips would be useful.

 

And i know: Benzene is extremely cancirogenic, volitile and nasty in every way. I dont exactly mean to treat the napalm as if it where modelling-clay...

[Mumbles]

The benzoate ion is C7H5O2, you seem to be forgetting the very important carboxyl side group. It is not simply a organo-metallic salt of benzene. And no, using H2SO4 will not work. You will produce benzoic acid, not benzene. The temperature required for the breakdown into benzene is higher than the boiling point of sulfuric acid, and as such it will not proceed to benzene.

[Picric acid DOES taste bitter!]

Your right, my misstake. I now see why NaOH is used.. just disregard what i said...