Question

How should `"tertiary butyl chloride"` be purified?

Answer 1

Well, especially with older bottles, you crack open the bottle, and get a whiff of `HCl`....

Explanation:

Evidently, `Bu^tCl` has eliminated to form `"2-methylpropylene"` and `HCl`:

`(H_3C)_3C-ClrarrHCl(g) + (H_3C)_2C=CH_2(g)`

And if you wash the butyl halide with with `Na^(+)""^(-)HCO_3` you get rid of any dissolved hydrochloric acid. Smaller volumes of ALL alkyl halides can be cleaned up by passing the solution thru a small column of alumina, i.e. and you can make the column from a Pasteur pipette packed with alumina; such a column is suitable for `5-10*mL` volumes....