A few people on this group talk of 'ethyl acetone'. What on earth is this?

Is it:

'acetone' or 'dimethyl ketone' of formula CH3-O-CH3.

'diethyl ether' of formula of C2H5-O-C2H5.

'methyl ethyl ketone' of formula CH3-O-C2H5.

or is it something else?

In fact, to solve this frequent confusion, can I motion for IUPAC compliance to be enforced on lab tips?

Synth

Maybe, Send me the literature, I will read it.

Ethyl acetone or Ethyl Acetate is a derivitave of acetone or lesser.

quote:Originally posted by tReePHrOg:

Ethyl acetone or Ethyl Acetate is a derivitave of acetone or lesser.

After a bit of research, it would appear that 'ethyl acetone' is as I suspected a trivial name for MEK (Methyl ethyl ketone). Ethyl acetate however is a completely different beast.

As for these two different substances being derivitaves of 'acetone or lesser', they are derivitaves only in the sense that anything with a methoxy group is.

Also, what is 'lesser' than acetone? How can you have a lower order ether than two methyl groups?

As for IUPAC, the Blue book can be found here: http://www.acdlabs.com/iupac/nomenclature/

Maybe soon you'll all be making N-methylphenylisopropylamine?

Makes much more sense.

Synth