• DOI:10.1098/rspl.1866.0018
• Corpus ID: 98496840

I. On the action of trichloride of phosphorus on the salts of the aromatic monamines

@article{HofmannIOT,
  title={I. On the action of trichloride of phosphorus on the salts of the aromatic monamines},
  author={August Wilhelm von Hofmann},
  journal={Proceedings of the Royal Society of London},
  pages={54 - 62}
}

• A. W. Hofmann
• Chemistry
• Proceedings of the Royal Society of London

The starting-point of the following experiments was an accidental observation. Whilst investigating the chlorine-, bromine-, and nitro-derivatives of aniline, I had prepared a large quantity of phenylacetamide by the action of chloride of acetyl on aniline. From the hydrochlorate of aniline, abundantly produced as a by-product in this reaction, the aniline was recovered by treating the mother-liquors with hydrate of sodium. During the distillation, after the greater part of the aniline had passed over and collected in the receiver, a tenacious oily fluid began to come over, adhering to the tube of the condenser and gradually becoming a crystalline mass. It was easily purified by washing with cold, and crystallization from hot alcohol. Beautiful white leafy crystals were thus obtained, fusible at 137°, and volatile without decomposition at a temperature beyond the range of the mercury-thermometer. These crystals are almost insoluble in water, difficultly soluble in cold, but soluble in hot alcohol, and also soluble in ether. The solutions are neutral.