ELISHA MITCHELL SCrENTIFIC SOCIETY. 



( ONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE CHEMICAL LABORATORY I'NIV. N. C. 



No. XXXIX. 



ON THE BROMINATION OF HEPTANE. 



F. P. VENABLE. 



Schorlemmer has shown that the heptane from Pinus sabini- 

 ana is probably identical with that from petroleum and is a 

 normal heptane. With regard to the action of the halogens 

 upon this heptane he says:* "By the action of chlorine upon a 

 normal paraffin not all the chlorides indicated by theory are 

 formed, lint only the primary and a secondary chloride which 

 contains. the group CHC1.CH 3 ; by the action of bromine upon 

 normal paraffins from petroleum only secondary bromides cor- 

 responding to chloride- are formed." 



In my inaugural dissertation (Gottingen, 1881, p. 14) I stated 

 that I found other products formed during the bromination of 

 normal heptane besides the secondary bromide, but did not exam- 

 ine them more closely. It seemed to me worthy of note at the 

 time that when the nnfractionated residue boiling ahove 170' C. 

 (the s ic uidary bromide boils at 1 65°-167°) was allowed to stand 

 -.me time and was then distilled, it yielded, under evolution <>t 

 hydrogen bromide, a fair proportion of secondary bromide boil- 

 ing at L65°-167°. Time and material have both been lacking 

 to me since the period of that research, and hence I have made 

 no closer examination of this point. 



\- it would be :i -traii"v and not very easilv accounted for 

 fact if bromine yielded only secondary products acting on nor- 

 mal paraffins, I determined to make use of a recent opportunity 

 to examine t hi- ;i<'t inn more closely. 



It may lie stated that in several brominations of this heptan . 

 made iii recenl years, I have found the yield of secondary bro- 

 mide to he only aboul 25 or •".<> per cent, of the theoretical. 



: American < Ihemical Jotirn i *;. 



