RE: ORGLIST:drying of THF

Dear friends,

The best idea would be take a sample of the THF (about a half of litre) add some KOH (about one gram) into the sample and watch the result. If you will see red colored deposite over the KOH particles or disolving of KOH added the addition of met. Na will result in magnificent explosion.

If you will see green color over the KOH particles (granules, briketts) and nothing more for 24 hours you can add Na without any problem, but the it would be better to add into your 200 L container about 2-5 kg of NaOH (technical grade will work perfectly) and keep it there for about one week and only then separate THF from the deposite and add Na. To obtain THF of good quality it would be very helpful to boil  it under reflux over Na/benzophenone to get deep blue color of the corresponding sodium benzophenolate and distill the resulting dry and peroxyde-less THF.

Good luck!:)

Dmitry