Notes on scientific research. 113 



Some years ago E. Puxeddu 1 ) had prepared, by the action of ferric chloride upon 

 ethereal anethole, a new polymeric anethole (Ci H 12 O)i , a white powder melting above 

 300°. Distilled in a vacuum (260°) this body yielded a further polymeric anethole 

 (Ci Hi 2 O) 2 (prismatic needles, m. p. 132°, little soluble in ether) 2 ). . .CH— CHAlk 

 The author assumes that the polymers of anethole posses the | \ 



annexed tetramethylene structure. There would thus be eleven Ar-CH — CH-Alk. 

 stereo-isomers. 



Puxeddu further studied the homologues of anethole, the j9-butenyl and the p-iso- 

 pentenylanisole which had already been prepared by Ch. Moureu and A. Chauvet 3 ). 

 From the i?-butenylanisole (b. p. 245 to 248°), which had been prepared by heating (for 

 eight hours) anisaldehyde, butyric acid anhydride and sodium butyrate to 275°, the 

 author obtained, in the polymerisation with ferric chloride in ether, an oily product. 



js-Isopentenylanisole (b. p. 248 to 252°, n D 1.54), soluble in ether and alcohol, which 

 was similarly prepared from anisaldehyde, isovaleric acid anhydride and sodium iso- 

 valerate, yielded a dibromide (m. p. 93 to 95°). The polymerisation of the latter gave 

 a gummy product. 



Acids, Esters, and Lactones. 



Rather and Reid 4 ) have found that, owing to their high melting points, acids are 

 sometimes better identified with the aid of their phenacylesters than by their p-nitro- 

 benzylesters. Still more suitable for this identification, particularly of monobasic 

 aliphatic acids (dibasic acids are well characterised as phenacylesters), are the j?-halogen- 

 phenacylbromides because they mostly form, with the acids, esters of high melting points 5 ). 



The three halogenphenacylbromides were easily prepared according to a method 

 described by Collet 6 ) from monohalogenbenzene and bromoacetylchloride (reaction 

 of Friedel and Crafts). The esters themselves Rather and Reid obtained by the method 

 which they had several times already described in detail 4 ), by heating the monobasic 

 acids (with the exception of the acetic, propionic, glycolic and lactic acids) for one 

 hour, dibasic acids for two hours, and tribasic acids for 3 hours, on the water bath. 

 A few acids, like asparaginic, maleic, racemic, tartaric and meconic acids, could not 

 be identified by this method, as their esters decomposed before melting. Some other 

 acids, gallic, linolic, oleic, oxalic, monochloroacetic and trichloroacetic, proved equally 

 unsuitable for this determination. Of the many esters which these authors prepared 

 we mention here: — (1) the p-chlorophenacylester of acetic acid (m. p. 67.2°), of benzoic 

 acid (m. p. 1*8.6°), of thiocyanic acid (m. p. 135.2°), of tricarballylic acid (m. p. 125.6°); 

 (2) the p-bromophenacylester of acetic acid (m. p. 85.0°), of anisic acid (m. p. 152.0°), 

 of benzoic acid (m. p. 119.0°), of cinnamic acid (m. p. 145.6°}, of phenylacetic acid 

 (m. p. 89.0°), of salicylic acid (m. p. 140.0°), of palmitic acid (m. p. 81.5°), of thiocyanic 

 acid (m.p. 146.5°), of o-toluylic acid (m. p. 56.9°), of valeric acid (m. p. 63.6°); (3) the 

 .p-iodophenacylester of acetic acid (m.p. 114.0°), of benzoic acid (m.p. 126.5°), of iso- 

 valeric acid (m.p. 78.8°), of palmitic acid (m.p. 90.0°), of valeric acid (m.p. 78.6°). 



On the whole the bromo-derivative is preferable to the two other ^-halogen- 

 phenacylbromides as reagent. From the p-halogenphenacylesters the corresponding 

 alcohols could easily be obtained by hydrolysis with water containing barium carbonate. 

 In this way the authors prepared the p-ch\oro- t j9-bromo- and jp-iodophenacyl alcohols 

 (m.p. 122.4°, 136.6° and 152.0°). 



l ) Beport 1917, 152. — 2 ) Gazz. chim. ital. 50 (1920), I. 149. — 3 ) Bull. Soc. chim. III. 17 (1897), 411. — 

 *) Journ. Americ. ehem. Soc. 41 (1919), 75. — 6 ) Ibidem 42 (1920), T043. — 6 ) Compt. rend. 125 (1897), 717. 



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