The Trapp mixture is a specific
mixture
In chemistry, a mixture is a material made up of two or more different chemical substances which can be separated by physical method. It is an impure substance made up of 2 or more elements or compounds mechanically mixed together in any proporti ...
of organic
solvent
A solvent (from the Latin language, Latin ''wikt:solvo#Latin, solvō'', "loosen, untie, solve") is a substance that dissolves a solute, resulting in a Solution (chemistry), solution. A solvent is usually a liquid but can also be a solid, a gas ...
s that allows
chemical reaction
A chemical reaction is a process that leads to the chemistry, chemical transformation of one set of chemical substances to another. When chemical reactions occur, the atoms are rearranged and the reaction is accompanied by an Gibbs free energy, ...
s to take place at very low temperatures. It is made up of
THF:
diethyl ether
Diethyl ether, or simply ether, is an organic compound with the chemical formula , sometimes abbreviated as . It is a colourless, highly Volatility (chemistry), volatile, sweet-smelling ("ethereal odour"), extremely flammable liquid. It belongs ...
:
pentane
Pentane is an organic compound with the chemical formula, formula C5H12—that is, an alkane with five carbon atoms. The term may refer to any of three structural isomerism, structural isomers, or to a mixture of them: in the IUPAC nomenclature, h ...
in a 4:4:1 ratio which remains liquid down to −110 °C and the same solvents in a 4:1:1 ratio remain a liquid down to −120 °C. This solvent system retains a low viscosity until just before freezing and it allows a lower temperature reaction than pure THF, which melts at −108.4 °C. An illustrative application of Trapp solvent is the preparation of
vinyllithium by
lithium halogen exchange from
vinyl bromide and
''tert''-butyllithium.
The low temperatures suppress the reaction of the strongly basic organolithium reagent with the THF.
References
Solvents
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