Ethyl sulfate

Chembox new
Name = Sulfovinic acid
ImageFile = Sulfovinic acid.svg
ImageSize = 250px
ImageName = Sulfovinic acid
IUPACName = ethyl hydrogen sulfate
PubChem = 6004
Section1 = Chembox Identifiers
SMILES = OS(=O)(=O)OCC
Section2 = Chembox Properties
Formula = C₂H₆O₄S
MolarMass = 126.13 g/mol
Density = 1.46 g/cm³
MeltingPt = unknown °C
BoilingPt = unknown °C

Ethyl sulfate, also known as sulfovinic acid, is an organic chemical compound used as intermediate in the production of ethanol from ethylene.

History

This substance was studied alongside ether for the first time by German alchemist August Siegmund Frobenius in 1730, subsequently by French chemists Fourcroy and Gay-Lussac in 1815. Swedish scientist Nicolas-Théodore de Saussure also studied it in 1807. Later French pharmacist Polydore Boullay discovered, sulfuric acid could produce large amounts of ether and water via a continuous process. Further studies by German and Swedish chemists Alexander Mitscherlich and Jöns Berzelius suggested sulfuric acid was acting as a catalyst, this eventually led discovery of Sulfovinic acid. The advent of electrochemistry by Italian physicist Alessandro Volta and English chemist Humphry Davy in the 1800s confirmed ether and water were formed by the action of sub-stoichiometric amounts of sulfuric acid and that sulfovinic acid was formed as an intermediate in the reaction.

ee also

* Methyl sulfate

References

*cite web|title=Ethy sulfate|work=Sulfovinic acid
url=http://ull.chemistry.uakron.edu/erd/chemicals/7/6500.html|accessmonthday=September 7 |accessyear=2005
*cite web|title=History of Ether|work=The Composition and Structure of Ether
url=http://classes.yale.edu/02-03/chem220a/studyaids/history/ether/ether.html |accessmonthday=September 7 |accessyear=2005