Base Hitters

[cheeseboy]

Is KOH alright to use as a basifier instead of NaOH, as long as there's a good water wash afterwards? Cheese heard that KOH was very poionous and risky to use,for health reasons. But cheese was forced to basify with it cause it was late and the grocery store was closed and the last of the lye had been used. Everything seemed to be OK, cheese washed things really well afterwards.
May The Source Bee With You....Always.

[PrimoPyro]

KOH is perfectly fine to basify with. You just need to use more of it, as it's molecular weight is higher than that of NaOH. Gram for gram, KOH contains less base than NaOH, so more mass must be used.

                                                    PrimoPyro
The Water Will Be Your Only Mirror

[cheeseboy]

Thanks Primo, wonder why they say KOH is better to use than NaOH for isomerizing? Maybe it is less harsh on the alkene?? does that make sense even?
May The Source Bee With You....Always.

[Rhodium]

Under anhydrous conditions (like when suspended in safrole) KOH is a stronger base than NaOH, among other reasons because the K⁺ ion is larger. CsOH would be even stronger, but it is expensive to the max...

[terbium]

CsOH would be even stronger, but it is expensive to the max...

The price of cesium salts is interesting. I was researching this some months ago when cesium hydroxide was mentioned as being a critical reagent in some other process. It turns out that the extreme price of cesium salts from suppliers of laboratory chemicals is not due to the cost of the raw material but must be simply all stocking and handling charges due to low demand.

There is a mine in eastern Canada where cesium is present as very high grade ore. If you were to buy cesium salts directly from this Canadian producer in mine production quantities you could get it for very much less than is charged by reagent chemical suppliers. Indeed, in order to create a market for their cesium salts they are selling saturated aqueous solutions for use as oil well drilling brine.

Another interesting use of cesiums salts that I found on the Internet was for the treatment of cancer. There is apparently some maverick theory about this and for a while cesium salts where being sold over the Internet for this though it seems that the U.S. FDA has put a stop to this.