calling anyone with science degrees (or half a brain)

Golden Touch

Golden Touch

Prince
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Jan 1, 2007
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Ok I'm going mental. my diss is basically finished except I still dontknow the mechanism by which my compounds might be reacting, and my pHd student is refusing to tell me.
So I'm reacting a Zinc precursor with a sulpur precursor at an aqueous/toluene interface. zinc in toluene, sulphur in water.

Zinc - Zinc Sterate
Sulphur - Potassium Ethyl Xanthate

anyone with a clue how potassium ethyl xanthate might donate a sulfur!?
 
Sorry, cant help you. Ive got half a brain, but not that half.
 
You have almost got me a degree, and potentially there is some brain up there. Sadly Chemstry brings me out in a rash...
 
Apparently when you say science degree, you're not actually including a B of S in Political Science. :blush:
 
Xanthate.gif


I forget the name of the mechism, but my guess would be a d- attacks the carbon and surplants the double bonded sulphur
 
see! my necks going blotchy already!
 
I'm not sure, but doesn't toluene act as an electrophilic aromatic substitution medium in organic reactions, where H is replaced by an electrophile (perhaps sulphor dioxide or something). Im not sure if this applies at all though, sorry. (This is wikipedia talking, not me)
 
Dont give up yet, all the smart people are busy working. They'll pop up later.
 
If my room mate comes back to the room, he might be able to help you. He's a chem major and seems to know a great deal about reaction mechanisms.

Or if Sophie comes she might know.
 
Bozo Erectus said:
Dont give up yet, all the smart people are busy working. They'll pop up later.
Click to expand...
They are not all busy working.

Spoiler :
Well, if I can be counted amongst the smart people that is


I'm at work not busy. Unfortunately, chemistry is not my field.
 
Send sophie a pm.. she is online
 
Sorry, I dropped chemistry for biochemistry a couple of years ago. If you can wait until Friday, I'll look it up in my textbooks for you (they're in Birmingham, I'm in Wales).

Which sulphur gets donated, the -----SK or the ====S ? Knowing that might help.

What's the reaction equation? Do you end up with ZnS or something, with the K substituting the Zn?
 
Sophie 378 said:
Sorry, I dropped chemistry for biochemistry a couple of years ago. If you can wait until Friday, I'll look it up in my textbooks for you (they're in Birmingham, I'm in Wales).

Which sulphur gets donated, the -----SK or the ====S ? Knowing that might help.
Click to expand...

Most likely the -----SK since the other is double bonded to the carbon.
 
It doesn't matter, they're the same thing. The double-bond is shared between the two of them; they each have effectively a half partial charge.

I can't figure out how to do it without cleaving the Sterate.
 
At a guess, it'd be nucleophilic attack from the O--Z bonds onto the K+, or the double-bond of the ===S attacks the Zn and they all crunch together to form one huge thing.
 
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