Don t forget to determine the appropriate disposal procedure for the sodium sulfate, too. If there is time, and the equipment is available, consider the following variations. Both of the lab procedures developed use diethyl ether as a major component of the reaction mixture, during the reaction itself and in the isolation of the product. From a manufacturing standpoint, however, ether is a very undesirable chemical to use. The volatility makes complete recovery for recycling difficult to do, and may produce problems for the company s air quality control measures.
Flammability is always an issue in a manufacturing plant.
Therefore, when a laboratory procedure is scaled up to production quantities, substitutes need to be found for diethyl ether. All of these attributes make it easier to handle. It seems likely, but before committing your company to production, you will need to design and run some pilot reactions to answer this question. MSDS information can be obtained through the stockroom or on line at this site, among others. Practical considerations will probably limit the students' initial experiments to the 5-10 gram range for raw materials.