SWID had something rather unusual happen. He has a quantity of diethyl ether, which was used previously for the synthesis of nitroethane. This ether was triple distilled after reaction, washed several time with hydroxide saturated water, brine, and dH20, dried, and distilled again.
When gassing some of this ether, SWID was suprised to see it turn a sort of bromine brown. Ok, he thinks, there must still be some ethyl bromide in there switching its halogens with chlorine to produce the color.
He treated this with copper powder, which turned a very dark brown-black, filtered, washed with water, and ended up with some slightly yellow ether to be distilled.
So he took his whole batch of possibly contaminated ether, and carefully added ~1g of copper powder. Swirled, some very light yellow green coloration. Hmm, SWID thought, so he added a mL or two of muriatic acid, and on swirling the solution grew dark.
Well, he swirled some more, then he noticed some red brown discoloration at the top of the flask. Figuring it to be copper powder, he lightly blew into the flask and was shocked to see it was a gas. A familiar odor permeated the room, and SWID fled for fear of nitrogen dioxide, turning on ventilation fans as he left.
SWID is more than just a little confused. As near as he can tell, there is absolutly nothing in this mixture of chemicals which could result in the formation of oxides of nitrogen. The only thing he could think of is that perhaps his muriatic is contaminated with something to prevent its use in drug synthesis.
Anybody have any thoughts about this? SWID doesn't believe he is "fixing" elemental nitrogen as it were, nor does he think that there is any source of nitrogen in the mix except for the atmosphere. Very, very odd.
EDIT: ~50mL of dH2O was added to the flask, and a puff of nitrogen dioxide was expelled. Upon sitting for a bit, the solution cleared, and two distinct layers were visible: an upper, yellow-green layer (ether) and a lower light blue layer (aqueous). The blue was ran off, and the ether washed with 6M NaOH, resulting in a lightening of the ethereal layer and a fresh, light blue aqueous layer. This too was ran off and discarded. Note that the light blue was quite reminiscent of diluted solutions of copper sulfate. SWID has nevered observed solution of cupric bromide, and so cannot compare. Still makes no sense, but if he can get his ether back pure, thats all that matters.
Anyways, SWID was just relaying this as a bit of a curiosity.
