THE PHILIPPINE 
JOURNAL OF SCIENCE 
A. CHEMICAL AND GEOLOGICAL SCIENCES 
AND THE INDUSTRIES 
VoL. VII APRIL, 1912 No. 2 
THE ACTION OF SUNLIGHT UPON METHYL ALCOHOL. 
By H. D. Gipss.* 
(From the Division of Organic Chemistry, Bureau of Science, and the De- 
partment of Chemistry, University of the Philippines, Manila, P. I.) 
CONTENTS. 
I. THE AcTION OF SUNLIGHT UPON SOLUTIONS OF p-QUINONE IN METHYL 
ALCOHOL. 
II. THE OXIDATION OF METHYL ALCOHOL UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF 
A. SUNLIGHT AND OXYGEN. 
B. HyDROGEN PEROXIDE. 
III. THE QUESTION OF THE PRODUCTION OF HYDROGEN PEROXIDE BY THE 
ACTION OF SUNLIGHT ON WATER AND OXYGEN. 
I. THE ACTION OF SUNLIGHT UPON SOLUTIONS OF p-QUINONE IN 
METHYL ALCOHOL. 
Ciamician? found that ethyl alcohol is oxidized to aldehyde 
in the presence of quinone and sunlight, and the quinone reduced 
to quinol. No action takes place in the dark. In the mother 
liquor from the purification of the quinol a small amount of an 
acid substance was found and Ciamician and Silber? state that 
there is also a small quantity of a brown-colored syrup. In the 
presence of sunlight some other quinones, and also some ketones 
and aldehydes, will produce the same result upon alcohol. 
* Associate professor of chemistry, University of the Philippines. 
* Gazz. chim. ital. (1886), 16, III. 
* Ber. d. deutschen chem. Ges. (1901), 34, 1532. 
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