364 M. Friedel on the Aldehydes and Acetones. 



ling a mixture, in equal equivalents^ of acetate and benzoate of 

 potash. By distilling the crude product from this reaction, 

 which contains acetone, benzole, and a substance resembling 

 benzophenone, a body is obtained which boils at 198°, and solidi- 

 fies at 14° C. into large crystalline plates. Its formula is 



(;i6 JJ8 02^ or pa U3 f> or methyluret of benzoyle, as acetone 



is methyluret of othyle. By distilling a mixture of acetate and 



butyrate of potash, the mixed acetone, q2 tt3 /», was obtained. 



Friedel found also that the action of pentachloride of phosphorus 

 on acetone is analogous to its action on aldehyde. When ace- 

 tone is gradually added to pentachloride of phosphorus, a violent 

 action is set up, hydrochloric acid is disengaged, and the residue 

 contains, besides oxychloride of phosphorus, two substances 

 which, after washing with water, may be separated by fractional 

 distillation. One boiling at 70° C. has the formula C*" H^' CP, is 

 isomeric with chloride of propylene, but boils at 30 degrees 

 lower ; the other, which is probably a product of decomposition 

 of the first, boils at 30°, and has the composition C^ H^ CI. The 

 action would thus be 



C6 H6 0^ + PCP = P02 CF + C« H« CP. 



Acetone. New body. 



A further support for the view that the acetones contain 

 alcohol radicals, Friedel* found in the deportment of hj'drochloric 

 acid towards acetone, which also furnishes a means of obtaining 

 the alcohol from the acid. At ordinary temperatures hydro- 

 chloric acid has no other action on acetone than that of readily 

 dissolving. But when a saturated solution of HCl in acetone is 

 heated in a scaled vessel in the water-bath for some time, it 

 separates into two layers. On opening the vessel a large quan- 

 tity of gas escapes, which is chloride of methyle, ar.d the residual 

 liquid contains acetic acid and unaltered acetone. The decom- 

 position is thus — 



2C6 H^ 02 + 4HCl=C4 H" 04-^4C2 H^ CI. 

 Acetone. Acetic acid. Chloride of 



methyle. 



Hydriodic acid acts at ordinary temperatures on acetone. 

 When this body is saturated with hydriodic acid gas, it may be 

 at once distilled ; at 43° — 45° iodide of methyle passes over, 

 which, however, is slightly contaminated with acetone, from 

 which it is with difficulty separated. The residue contains acetic 



* Comptes Rendtis, vol. xlvi. p. 1165. Liebig's Annalen, August 1858. 



