CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE CHEMICAL LABORATORY OF 



HARVARD COLLEGE. 



ON THE COLORED COMPOUNDS OBTAINED FROM SODIC 

 ALCOHOLATES AND PICRYLCHLORIDE. 



By C. Loring Jackson and W. F. Boos. 



Presented January 12, 1898. 



The work described in this paper is the continuation of a research 

 begun by M. H. Ittner and one of us,* about three years ago, upon the 

 colored products of the action of sodic alcoholates on certain aromatic 

 nitro compounds. For a statement of the work of Lobry de Bruyn and 

 Van Leent, and of Victor Meyer, on this subject, the reader is referred to 

 that paper.* The first object to which we turned our attention was the 

 isolation and analysis of more substances of this class, since only three 

 analyses of such bodies had been published ; these three analyses led to 

 the following formulas : — 



C6H3(NOo)3KOCH3 i H2O ; t [C6H,(NO.)3COOKKOCH3]2CH30H ; t 

 and C6HoOCH3(NO.)2COONaNaOC2H5.§ 



As dinitranisic acid had given Ittner and one of us § a comparatively stable 

 compound, when treated with sodic ethylate, we at first tried to prepare 

 similar compounds from it and other sodic alkylates ; but a few experi- 

 ments convinced us that the products from these reactions were too un- 

 stable for our purpose. Our attention was then called by one of our 

 associates in this Laboratory to the red substance formed by the action 

 of sodic methylate on picrylchloride, and this has led to the discovery 

 and analysis of the following compounds : — 



* Am. Chem. Journ., XIX. 199. 



t Lobry de Bruyn and Van Leent, Rec. Trav. Chim. Pays Bas, XIV. 150. 



t Van Leent, Ibid., XV. 89. 



§ Jackson and Ittner, Am. Cliem. Journ., XIX. 210. 



