Friday, September 12, 2008

Fluorene, what's it good for?

I've been culling items from our organic stockroom. This task has been long overdue. I have bottles of things that were filled before the EPA and OSHA even existed. They were filled before benzene started causing cancer.

I found a 1 pound bottle of fluorene. Fluorene puts the F in FMOC and the F in a lot of other things.

My question is, does anybody know what uses plain, old, ordinary 9H-fluorene has?

I know the proton can be removed relatively easily and then it probably acts as a nucleophile.

It can also be oxidized to fluorenone using a phase transfer catalyst.



What else can I do with my newly discovered stash of fluorene?
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8 comments:

  1. milkshakeSeptember 12, 2008 at 2:25 PM

    you can use it to make fluorenyl methyl alcohol, a protecting group material.

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  2. Ψ*ΨSeptember 12, 2008 at 3:15 PM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  3. Lisa-tastrophiesSeptember 12, 2008 at 7:11 PM

    Oh yeah, you lost me at FMOC.
    Sorry, my chemistry is limited to ETOH + CLOSING TIME = me and a very bad decision.
    Maybe Mjenks has a better use. He seems to like to play in the lab a lot :-)
    Good luck with the chemistry.

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  4. ChemgeekSeptember 13, 2008 at 10:01 AM

    Ψ*Ψ,

    Can what you refer to be incorporated into an organic lab?

    Lisa,

    sorry. I have to legitimize my "Chemistry" blog by including some actual chemistry every now and then. It make me feel better.

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  5. Ψ*ΨSeptember 13, 2008 at 1:00 PM

    Possibly. I'll have to read a few of them more carefully and see how difficult the synthesis looks. OLED fabrication is super easy, though. :)

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  6. Lisa-tastrophiesSeptember 13, 2008 at 1:56 PM

    Ok, then. You're forgiven. I understand the need for legitimacy. I am actually a little on the envious side since my chem days were limited to using the academic version of Legos and getting a head-ache from having my forehead creased in the "WHAT????" position during lecture hall.

    but, technically, isn't home brewing a form of chemistry and therefore counts as chemistry related? ;-)

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  7. AnonymousFebruary 2, 2009 at 1:22 AM

    Did you mean NaOCl instead of NaOH?

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  8. ChemgeekFebruary 3, 2009 at 8:56 AM

    Nope, it should be NaOH, but I should have included oxygen as the oxidizer.

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