Carbon tetrachloride

“ A certain amount is obtained if a mixture of carbonic oxide and the vapour of sulphur be passed through a red-hot tube. When carbon tetrachloride is heated with sulphurous anhydride, this substance is also formed; but it is best obtained in a pure form by decomposing potassium thiocyanate with a mixture of equal volumes of water and sulphuric acid. A gas is then evolved containing a certain amount of hydrocyanic acid, from which it may be freed by passing it over wool containing moistened mercuric oxide, which retains the hydrocyanic acid. ”

“ Carbon tetrachloride, CCl4, also forms it when heated with carbonic anhydride (at 400°) , with phosphoric anhydride (200°) , and most easily of all with sulphuric anhydride (2SO3 + CCl4 = COCl2 + S2O5Cl2, this is pyrosulphuryl chloride) . Chloroform, CHCl3, is converted into carbonyl chloride when heated with SO2 (OH) Cl (the first chloranhydride of sulphuric acid) ; CHCl3 + SO3HCl = COCl2 + SO2 + 2HCl (Dewar) , and when oxidised by chromic acid.
Among the reactions of phosgene we may mention the formation of urea with ammonia, and of carbonic oxide when heated with metals. ”

“ Many years ago I had proved tetrachloride of carbon to be highly diathermanous. Its sounding power is as feeble as its absorbent power.
In relation to colliery explosions, the deportment of marsh-gas was of special interest. Professor Dewar was good enough to furnish me with a pure sample of this gas. The sounds produced by it, when exposed to the intermittent beam, were very powerful. Chloride of methyl, a liquid which boils at the ordinary temperature of the air, was poured into a small flask, and permitted to displace the air within it. ”

“ Tetrachloride of carbon is a colourless liquid, having a sp. gr. 1·6, and boiling at 172° F. It is insoluble in water, but dissolves in alcohol and ether. Its vapour, diluted with air, is employed as an anæsthetic.
Carbon, Oxychloride of. COCl2. Syn. Chlo′rocarbon′ic acid, Phosgene gas, Chloride of carbonyl. Equal measures of carbonic oxide and chlorine are exposed to the direct rays of the sun; they combine, and become condensed to half their volume. It is a colourless, suffocating gas, which is immediately decomposed by water into carbonic and hydrochloric acids. ”

“ A mixture of the vapors of carbon tetrachloride and fluorine inflames spontaneously with detonation, and chlorine is liberated without deposition of carbon.
Boric anhydride is raised to a most vivid incandescence by fluorine, the experiment being rendered very beautiful by the abundant white fumes of the trifluoride which are liberated. ”

“ It is tasteless, colourless and odourless gas, which is exceedingly stable and inert. It may be condensed and yields a solid which melts at -55° C. Sulphuretted hydrogen decomposes it with formation of hydrofluoric acid and liberation of sulphur. Sulphur chloride, S2Cl2, is obtained as a by-product in the manufacture of carbon tetrachloride from carbon bi sulphide and chlorine, and may also be prepared on the small scale by distilling sul hur in a chlorine gas, or by the action of sulp-hur on sulphuryl ciiloride in the presence of aluminium chloride (O. Ruff) . ”

“ It dissociates when heated to a sufficiently high temperature. A mixture of carbon bisulphide vapour and nitric oxide burns with a very intense blue-coloured flame, which is very rich in the violet or actinic rays. When heated with water in a sealed tube to 150° C. it yields carbon dioxide and sulphuretted hydrogen. Zinc and hydrochloric acid reduce it to tri-thioformaldehyde (CH2S) 3 (A. Girard, Comptes rendus, 1856, 43, p. 396) . When passed through a red-hot tube with chlorine it yields carbon tetrachloride and sulphur chloride (H. Kolbe) . ”

“ Chlorcarbonic ester, Cl·CO·OC2H5, is formed by the addition of well-cooled absolute alcohol to phosgene (carbonyl chloride) . It is a pungent-smelling liquid, which fumes strongly on exposure to air. It boils at 93.1°C., and has a specific gravity of 1.144 (15°C.) . When heated with ammonia it yields urethane. Sodium amalgam converts it into formic acid; whilst with alcohol it yields the normal carbonic ester. It is easily broken down by many substances (aluminium chloride, zinc chloride, &c.) into ethyl chloride and carbon dioxide. ”

“ The formation of peroxodicarbonate C2O62- by oxygen reduction to superoxide in RTILs is an example. Among hydrogen, nitrogen, and carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and water have the highest solubility in an ionic liquid (C4C1-iPF6) at 25°C. CO2 is the most soluble in fluorinated IL. CO2 can be collected from the ILs by pressure decreasing. Optimizing the design of the appropriate RTILs, as well as the electrode material, is compulsory to enhance the absorption and the reduction of CO2 (Rees and Compton, 2011) . ”

“ It also has the power of absorbing colouring matters from solution. Charcoal is used as a fuel and as a reducing agent in metallurgical processes.
The element carbon unites directly with hydrogen to form acetylene when an electric arc is passed between carbon poles in an atmosphere of hydrogen (M. Berthelot) ; it also unites directly with fluorine, producing, chiefly, carbon tetrafluoride CF4. It burns when heated in an atmosphere of oxygen, forming carbon dioxide, and when heated in sulphur vapour it forms carbon bisulphide (q.v.) ”

“ The facility with which it decomposes nitric acid, when it is combined with salifiable bases, as with potassa in saltpetre, and its action in all cases wherein nitre is concerned, are sufficient examples of its effect.
Pure carbon is the diamond. It affords by combustion in oxygen gas, the same gas as common charcoal, when charcoal is burnt in oxygen, or in atmospheric air. This gas is carbonic acid, or fixed air. Charcoal has been considered a long time an oxide of carbon, and according to some, as Berthollet, a compound of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. ”

“ It is said, that by employing more charcoal than is necessary to decompose the nitric acid of the nitre, the excess passes off, not as carbonic acid, but carbonic oxide, or gaseous oxide of carbon, which is necessarily inflamed, and finally forms carbonic acid, as one of the products with the carbonic acid originally formed. But the carbonic oxide, to be changed into carbonic acid, requires in fact the oxygen of the atmosphere. ”

“ It burns with a characteristic pale blue flame to form carbon dioxide. It is very poisonous, uniting with the haemoglobin of the blood to form carbonyl-haemoglobin. It is a powerful reducing agent, especially at high temperatures. It is rapidly absorbed by an ammoniacal or acid (hydrochloric acid) solution of cuprous chloride. It unites directly with chlorine, forming carbonyl chloride or phosgene (see below) , and with nickel and iron to form nickel and iron carbonyls (see Nickel and Iron) . It also combines directly with potassium hydride to form potassium formate (see Formic Acid) . ”

“ The tar-like substances, which require a high temperature in order to decompose them, also remain mixed with charcoal. If a volatile organic substance, such as a gaseous compound containing oxygen and hydrogen, be taken, the carbon separates on passing the vapour through a tube heated to a high temperature. Organic substances when burning with an insufficient supply of air give off soot—that is, charcoal—proceeding from carbon compounds in a state of vapour, the hydrogen of which has, by combustion, been converted into water ”

“ It naturally follows that if along with the requisite temperature sufficient pressure is applied, liquefaction of carbon will take place, when on cooling it will crystallise. But carbon at high temperatures is a most energetic chemical agent, and if it can get hold of oxygen from the atmosphere or any compound containing it, it will oxidise and fly off in the form of carbonic acid. Heat and pressure therefore are of no avail unless the carbon can be kept inert. ”

“ Accepting the doctrine of the tetravalency of carbon (its divalency in such compounds as carbon monoxide, various isocyanides, fulminic acid, &c., and its possible trivalency in M. Gomberg’s triphenyl-methyl play no part in what follows) , it is readily seen that the simplest hydrocarbon has the formula CH4 named methane, in which the hydrogen atoms are of equal value, and which may be pictured as placed at the vertices of a tetrahedron, the carbon atom occupying the centre. ”

“ Dry 98 per cent gaseous chlorine, as obtained directly from the cells of the chlorine plant, and pure carbon monoxide obtained from the producers, are mixed in approximate equal volumes and the mixture passed through catalyzers, where the two gases combine to form phosgene. The resultant gas is liquefied in the condensers, appearing in the left. ”

“ The compounds prepared in this way are all insoluble in water, doubtless by reason of the slowness with which such compact solids can be attacked; they dissolve easily in dilute acids. The weakly acid character of titanium dioxide is shown by the fact that if the fusion with metallic carbonates be carried out in vessels so adjusted that the carbon dioxide exerts a pressure of one atmosphere, a condition of equilibrium is reached, in which a considerable part of the carbonate remains unattacked. ”

“ When heated to a temperature of 245 deg. C. in a stream of chlorine gas it becomes incandescent, forming calcium chloride and liberating carbon, and it can also be made to burn in oxygen at a dull red heat, leaving behind a residue of calcium carbonate. Under the same conditions it becomes incandescent in the vapour of sulphur, yielding calcium sulphide and carbon disulphide; the vapour of phosphorus will also unite with it at a red heat. Acted upon by water it is at once decomposed, yielding acetylene and calcium hydrate. ”

“ All carbonates, except those of the alkali metals and of thallium, are insoluble in water; and the majority decompose when heated strongly, carbon dioxide being liberated and a residue of an oxide of the metal left. The alkaline carbonates undergo only a very slight decomposition, even at a very bright red heat. The carbonates are decomposed by mineral acids, with formation of the corresponding salt of the acid, and liberation of carbon dioxide. Many carbonates which are insoluble in water dissolve in water containing carbon dioxide. ”

“ It begins, however, not with ready-made ammonium bicarbonate, but with the substances from which it is formed—ammonia, water and carbon dioxide—which are made to act on sodium chloride. In practice the process is carried out as follows. A nearly saturated solution of sodium chloride is obtained by purifying natural or artificial brine, i.e. an impure solution of common salt, especially removing the alkaline earths and so forth by addition of sodium or ammonium carbonate and settling out the precipitate formed. ”

“ Carbon Protoxide, called also carbon monoxide, carbonic oxide, etc., is a gas, having no color or taste, butpossessing a faint odor. It is very poisonous. Being the lesser oxide of C, it is formed when C is burned in a limited supply of O, whereas CO2 is always produced when O is abundant. The formation of each is well shown by tracing the combustion in a coal fire. Air enters at the bottom, and CO2 is first formed. ”

“ Methyl chloride is decomposed by fluorine, even at -23°, with production of a yellow flame, deposition of carbon, and liberation of fluorides of hydrogen and carbon and free chlorine. With the vapor of methyl chloride, as pointed out in the description of the electrolysis, violent explosions occur.
Ethyl alcohol vapor at once takes fire in fluorine gas, and the liquid is decomposed with explosive violence without deposition of carbon. Aldehyde is formed to a considerable extent during the reaction. ”

“ Inspired by nature, a large body of research has been devoted to new materials catalyzing CO2 functionalization in either electrochemical or chemical ways. In 2009, the US start-up Carbon Science [2] has produced liquid fuels thanks to a prototype. The demonstration prototype uses Carbon Science innovative biocatalytic process to break down CO2 and water and then combines carbon and hydrogen to form ethanol, a liquid fuel. Enzymes from microorganisms transform CO2 and H2O to methane, methanol, and butanol. ”

“ These blocks having been allowed to dry and harden, are subsequently carbonized by being subjected to a process of incineration by heat; and, in this manner, all the combustible ingredients are burnt out of the block, leaving nothing behind but the animal charcoal in the form of a block of charcoal, permeated throughout by innumerable pores, admirably adapted for the mechanical infiltration of fluids, while subjecting them, in a minutely subdivided state, to the chemical absorptive and purifying action of the carbon itself. ”

“ Thus in coal and jet the carbon is of stable character, such as we might expect to result from the slow decomposition of vegetable matter, and the products of this action are not volatile or liable to be suddenly dissociated or broken up. On the other hand, when we deal with the hydrocarbons as they are called, in the shape of rock gas, naphtha, petroleum, tar, asphaltum, and similar substances, we see how the carbon has become subordinated to the hydrogen part of the compounds, with the result of rendering them more or less unstable in their character. ”

“ But from the best anthracite, which is nearly pure carbon concentrated, if oxygen be entirely excluded, not much can distil away with any degree of heat. The combustion of this fuel, therefore, admits of very easy and economical regulation, by simply regulating the supply of air. When the air is admitted at all, it should be admitted above as well as below the fuel, so that the carbonic oxyde that is generated in the mass may be burned, or converted into carbonic acid, over the top. ”