Make Propionic Acid by the Haloform Reaction

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In this video we synthesize propionic acid from methyl ethyl ketone and bleach.

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[NurdRage]

As promised, how to make propionic acid from methyl ethyl ketone and bleach. We're essentially reprocessing the haloform reaction.
Personally i think this method is pretty crappy, so much work and and waste for such a tiny amount of product. I'll see if i can find a better method. On the plus side, a really crappy method makes for a nice long and comprehensive video :)

Anyway, Merry Christmas, happy new year and whatever else you celebrate. I should have at least one more video in December before i too take a break for the holidays.

[GadgetBoy]

I'm really enjoying this series. It would be awesome if you released a long video with more detail showing all of the steps from start to finish.

[christopherhickman]

YOU are a legend. I can appreciate your end goal and you do a great job at making this so achievable by anyone with some basic Chemistry knowledge and skills!

[RaExpIn]

I really love all the ideas of solving different problems on the way to make propionic acid. Reminds my of my days back then in the lab. I used propionic acid as a solvent to make porphyrin (to be more precisely TTP), which I then used as a ligand. Keep up the nice work! :)

[will_der_dude]

you are one of very few who perfectly explains every aspect...thank you

[SigEpBlue]

Bleach, MEK, and sulfuric acid? I bet it smells _glorious_ in there! :)

[TheSkytherMod]

I don't often press the like button on any youtube videos but your content is really really good.

[moyase]

I will be looking forward to seeing your pyrimethamine synthesis video. To see one of the most important drugs ever made synthesized using household items is beyond amazing.

[MrPololo]

I don't really know or like anything about chemistry or physics yet I love your videos ..

[UnauthorizedExpression]

Why the fuck do I watch every one of these as if I know anything at all about chemistry? I just know there's a cheeky bastard in my subconscious with a monocle saying, "Oh yes indubitably sir, but I would have used the keystone reaction to double my propablahblahblah and thereby save the world."

[masonacosta]

Ya know, I wish I could do pool work under these conditions, but when we work with acids, chlorine, bromine, etc. we usually wear nothing, or a simple hospital mouth cover. I learned my lesson. While give a pool a scrubbing with some weak muriatic acid, my helper forgot to take the chlorine out of the skimmer. When I cleaned the skimmer, well, let's just say that the pool became a gas chamber. It wasn't terrible, because it was weak acid from Walmart, but if we would have used warehouse acid, we would have had to evacuate the LSU (Louisiana state university) entire campus. At midday. It. Was. Painful.

[martinofgliwice]

Would ot be possible to make propionic acid from acetone by this route?:
-mix excess acetone water and sodium hydroxide
-add bleach dropwise, slowly
-separate propionic acid by this method?

Now, it may seem, that this is exactly what NR did, but with acetone instead of MEK. But here we add bleach very slowly. There is never enough bleach to react with acetone fully, and there are nearly no polychlorinated acetones in the mix. Chloroacetone undergoes Favorskii rearrangement in basic conditions and rearranges into propionic acid. Woyld that work?

[alexanderhaseloer]

good video :-)
will there ever be a compilation of organic name reactions and how to perform them? I did a birch reduction earlier this month (actually at room temperature with npropylamine instead of liquid ammonia) and it was so beautiful that I can imagine it would be a good video for this channel. :-)
greetings from germany!

[Jeff]

Great video! Even though it has been a long road and your yield was low, it's still a satisfying feeling when you get the product, right?

[ironmikecrudgington]

Would it be possible to buy the cheap(ish) food preservative Calcium Propionate and add sulphuric acid, isolate with distillation/drying like you did to get Calcium Sulphate and Propionic Acid? This would skip all of the hazardous gases in the beginning steps?

[HMan]

Dilute propionic acid solution is excellent to sterilize jars for home made jam or pickled anything. It's also perfect to sterilize bins for growing mushrooms and the like.

[Yamahapsr]

How about a video about Fluoroantimonic acid?

[dantetwa]

+NurdRage, Pyrimethamine? Freaking awesome. I was really upset when I heard the news about the price scalping. Would this be activism through chemistry?

[otakuribo]

After all the work you've put into this project so far; I'll be really disappointed for you if it doesn't work out. So best of luck with that.

Oh yeah, and merry Krampus day and stuff!

[micaiah]

even though I don't know most of this, it's still very interesting to watch :)