Chlorbutol

Trichloro-tert-butyl alcohol, commonly called chlorbutol is a mild local anaesthetic. Its also a hypnotic and a sedative. Pure chlorbutol is a white solid and smells a lot like menthol. Care should be taken when handling this compound as it is highly toxic to the liver. It can be synthesized from chloroform and acetone. I tried making some.

To a beaker I added 45ml of acetone. I chilled the beaker of acetone in the freezer for 30 minutes then took it out and added 9ml of chloroform and 1g of sodium hydroxide to it. I placed the mixture back into the freezer for 2 hours, stirring every 30 minutes. After this the mixture had turned quite cloudy with fine precipitate. I filtered the mixture and collected the clear filtrate. I poured the filtrate into a flask then placed the flask on a hotplate and added a thermometer. I gently boiled the liquid down, until it stopped boiling and the temperature rose to 80 C.

I then then poured the mixture in 30ml of ice cold water. The mixture separated into 2 layers, and after a bit of stirring the bottom layer solidified into nice white clumps of chlorbutol. I filtered off the chlorbutol and dried it. I got 3g which is a 23% yield.

(CH3)2CO + CHCl3 ==NaOH==> C4H7Cl3O