K. Yuen, W. Chow
1953
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Journal
Acta pharmaceutica Sinica
Abstract
Potassium hydrosulfide in ethyl alcohol may be used for sodium hydrosulfide in the preparation of dimercaprol. The yield amounts to 76% as against 80%, the reported highest yield in literature where sodium hydrosulfide is used. Potassium hydrosulfide has three advantages over the sodium salt, namely: (1) it is more soluble in alcohol; (2) the raw material, potassium hydroxide, is also more soluble in alcohol than sodium hydroxide; (3) the use of metallic sodium which is hardly available at present is avoided. In the absence of an autoclave the reaction is best carried in a closed system at room temperature. No leakage should occur in the system. Stocken’s partition method of purification may be applied with advantage before isolation of the crude product, but after the crude product has been isolated, the method is not advisable to use as it has to be followed anyway by a series of vacuum distillations to attain a high purity(over 99%) and straight vacuum distillations are even better.