Preparation and Physical Constants of Higher Straight Chain Ethers: Butyl Hexyl Ether

Abstract

Many of the simpler organic compounds, whose formulas can be so easily written, have never actually been prepared. The literature is as yet imoomplete regarding their physical constants and exact methods of preparation. It was the purpose of this thesis to attempt to fil in sane of these gaps in chemical knowledge, choosing as a class of compounds the higher, straight-chained, mixed ethers. The preliminary step was, quite naturally, a literature search to determine what work had already been done in this field, which ethers had already been synthesized and studied, and which others remained as a problem for research. Our survey revealed that the hexyl series of mixed ethers, from propyl hexyl ether and up, was a complete blank and, accordingly, we decided upon this series as the subject of our work. . . . The value of research of this type lies not so much in determining the individual constants of the substances prepared, as in viewing a whole series of compounds. Their properties have a systematic variance with the chain length which enables one to predict constants of compounds in advance of their preparation. The checking of these predictions is of great scientific interest in the same way that it is of interest to find the reason for discrepancies, if and where they exist. [From Introduction]