Ethyl vinyl ether is an

organic compound Some chemical authorities define an organic compound as a chemical compound that contains a carbon–hydrogen or carbon–carbon bond; others consider an organic compound to be any chemical compound that contains carbon. For example, carbon-co ...

with the chemical formula CH₃CH₂OCH=CH₂. It is the simplest

enol ether In organic chemistry an enol ether is an alkene with an alkoxy substituent. The general structure is R2C=CR-OR where R = H, alkyl or aryl. A common subfamily of enol ethers are vinyl ethers, with the formula ROCH=CH2. Important enol ethers incl ...

that is liquid at room temperature. It is used as a synthetic building block and a

monomer A monomer ( ; ''mono-'', "one" + '' -mer'', "part") is a molecule that can react together with other monomer molecules to form a larger polymer chain or two- or three-dimensional network in a process called polymerization. Classification Chemis ...

Preparation and reactions

Ethyl vinyl ether is made by reaction of

acetylene Acetylene (Chemical nomenclature, systematic name: ethyne) is a chemical compound with the formula and structure . It is a hydrocarbon and the simplest alkyne. This colorless gas is widely used as a fuel and a chemical building block. It is u ...

and

ethanol Ethanol (also called ethyl alcohol, grain alcohol, drinking alcohol, or simply alcohol) is an organic compound with the chemical formula . It is an Alcohol (chemistry), alcohol, with its formula also written as , or EtOH, where Et is the ps ...

in presence of a base. The alkene portion of the molecule is reactive in many ways. It is prone to

polymerization In polymer chemistry, polymerization (American English), or polymerisation (British English), is a process of reacting monomer molecules together in a chemical reaction to form polymer chains or three-dimensional networks. There are many fo ...

, leading to formation of polyvinyl ethers. Polymerization is typically initiated with

Lewis acid A Lewis acid (named for the American physical chemist Gilbert N. Lewis) is a chemical species that contains an empty orbital which is capable of accepting an electron pair from a Lewis base to form a Lewis adduct. A Lewis base, then, is any ...

s such as

boron trifluoride Boron trifluoride is the inorganic compound with the formula . This pungent, colourless, and toxic gas forms white fumes in moist air. It is a useful Lewis acid and a versatile building block for other boron compounds. Structure and bonding The g ...

. Ethyl vinyl ether participates in many reactions of interest to

organic synthesis Organic synthesis is a branch of chemical synthesis concerned with the construction of organic compounds. Organic compounds are molecules consisting of combinations of covalently-linked hydrogen, carbon, oxygen, and nitrogen atoms. Within the gen ...

. With catalytic amounts of acids, ethyl vinyl ether adds to alcohols to give the mixed acetal: :EtOCH=CH₂ + ROH → EtOCH(OR)CH₃ This alcohol protection reaction is akin to the behavior of

dihydropyran In organic chemistry, dihydropyran refers to two heterocyclic compounds with the formula In science, a formula is a concise way of expressing information symbolically, as in a mathematical formula or a ''chemical formula''. The informal use of ...

. Ethyl vinyl ether also participates in inverse demand +2

cycloaddition In organic chemistry, a cycloaddition is a chemical reaction in which "two or more Unsaturated hydrocarbon, unsaturated molecules (or parts of the same molecule) combine with the formation of a cyclic adduct in which there is a net reduction of th ...

reactions. Deprotonation with

butyl lithium Butyllithium may refer to one of 5 isomeric organolithium reagents of which 3 are commonly used in chemical synthesis: * ''n''-Butyllithium, abbreviated BuLi or nBuLi * ''sec''-Butyllithium, abbreviated ''sec''-BuLi or sBuLi, has 2 stereoisomers, ...

gives the acetyl anion equivalent: :EtOCH=CH₂ + BuLi → EtOC(Li)=CH₂ + BuH

Toxicity

The toxicity of vinyl ethers has been heavily investigated because they have been used as inhalation anesthetics. The acute

LD50 In toxicology, the median lethal dose, LD50 (abbreviation for "lethal dose, 50%"), LC50 (lethal concentration, 50%) or LCt50 is a toxic unit that measures the lethal dose of a given substance. The value of LD50 for a substance is the dose requ ...

for the closely related methyl vinyl ether is greater than 4 g/kg (rats, oral).

References

{{reflist Vinyl ethers Ethyl compounds