Understand the Steps Followed in Preparation of Sodium Ethoxide

Preparation of sodium ethoxide is one of the processes involved in manufacture of various organic compounds from ethanol. The chemical compound of sodium ethoxide is the salt of the acid and base. Sodium ethoxide is not very toxic but it can cause irritation on skin and eye. The solution should be kept in a tightly closed container in the lab because there are chances to form explosive peroxides on storage. It can be prepared by following steps;

 1. Keeping the dry sodium carbonate of 100 g in a 250 ml beaker and adding water to it till the level is 90ml. Stir the solution at room temperature till all sodium carbonate is dissolved completely.

 2. Adding ethanol to prepare a thin paste and put it into a separatory funnel. Put distillate flask under the separatory funnel so when ethanol solution is poured in distillate flask it will be collected efficiently.

 3. The third step in preparation of sodium ethoxide is to add water to collect the organic layer, which contains ethanol in alcohol form (at about 76 degrees) and recover 100 ml of this layer with vacuum pump because it contains most of the ethanol in alcohol form.

 4 . Adding ammonium hydroxide to the organic layer and keep it under vacuum for 15 minutes. This mixing helps in removing the water from ethanol. Add more water to get alcohol of approx. 70 percent concentration and drain the solution into separatory funnel again.

 5 . The organic layer is evaporated to get second organic layer, which contains water in form of hydroxide ions (in a greenish color). The solution is concentrated to get anhydrous ethanol of about 12 percent concentration (because it contains most of the alcohol in ether form) which can be stored safely at room temperature for further use when needed.

 6 . Distilling the second organic layer to collect the third organic layer, which contains sodium ethoxide and water. The water can be separated from sodium ethoxide by distillation from a fractionating column.

 7 . The seventh step of preparation of sodium ethoxide is to add excess ethanol to sodium ethoxide collected in step 6 to get a thin paste and keep it for 15 minutes at room temperature so that sodium ethoxide dissolves completely in ethanol and yields sodium ethylate solution. The solution is mixed with anhydrous ether and filtered through paper, drying off excess ether to get pure distilled anhydrous sodium ethylate. This can be stored safely at room temperature for further use when needed.

 8 . Distilling the sodium ethoxide solution collected in step 7 to get pure distilled anhydrous sodium ethoxide, which can be stored safely at room temperature when needed.

 9. This process is generally carried out using a mixture of ethanol and water (ethanol being used as solvent) because it produces less heat during reaction than pure ethanol. Furthermore, this is better to be consumed than the produced sodium ethoxide because the percentage is lower in the mixed solution than distillation of pure ethanol.

 Uses of sodium ethoxide

 1. It is used in chemical industry where it is used to prepare more complex organic chemical compounds from ethanol.

 2.It is also used as a dehydrating agent to dry sodium chloride, which is commonly known as salt.

 3.Sodium ethoxide is also an important species occurring in interstellar medium, which are known as MgH molecule.

 4. Sodium ethoxide is also used in dry cleaning products to remove the grease from the fabrics which are treated with sodium hypochlorite called bleaching powders and made of sodium, chlorine, ammonia and water.

 5. Sodium ethoxide is used as a catalyst for the synthesis of hydrazine in catalysis by means of dehydrogenation reaction by heating it with metallic iron or iron oxide to yield hydrazinium ion and nitrogen oxides such as nitric oxide at high temperature and pressure.

 6. Sodium ethoxide used as a common solvent for aluminum to get oxide of aluminum at a temperature of approx. 430 degree Celsius in the presence of air.

 7. Sodium ethoxide is used as a catalyst for hydrogenation of vegetable oils (soybean oil, cottonseed oil, coconut oil).

 8. Sodium ethoxide (ethylenediamine) is used as a common source for producing EDTA which is an important chelating agent and an important ingredient in some drugs and in medication.

 9. Sodium ethoxide is used as a catalyst for the production of ethanolamines from amines, which are synthesized by the reaction of chloroacetic acid with ammonia or by oxidative cleavage of ammonia in water at elevated temperatures.

 10. Sodium ethoxide is used as a catalyst to produce nitric acid by nitration of ammonia in the presence of sulfuric acid at a temperature of 300 to 400 degrees Celsius through oxidation and dehydrogenation reactions.