Preparation
Few procedures have been reported to the anhydrous solid. Instead the material is typically prepared in a solution with ethanol. It is commercially available and as a solution in ethanol. It is easily prepared in the laboratory by treating sodium metal with ethanol:
- 2 C2H5OH + 2 Na → 2 C2H5ONa + H2
An alternative, cheaper route involves the reaction of sodium hydroxide with anhydrous ethanol. This reaction suffers from incomplete conversion to the alkoxide, but for less stringent applications, full conversion is unimportant. The salt product may be purified by precipitation in a solution of anhydrous acetone
Read more about this topic: Sodium Ethoxide
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