How would I form "Na"_4"SiO"_4 from silicon dioxide? How about forming "Na"_4"ZrO"_4 from zirconia?

1 Answer
Truong-Son N.
Dec 29, 2015

Just a note: I'm only theorizing here, so ask your professor what he or she thinks as well.

For the silicon dioxide, you might want to consider the following reaction with sodium oxide:

2"Na"_2"O" + "SiO"_2 -> "Na"_4"SiO"_4

One way you may be able to proceed is to react with tosyl chloride, "TsCl" in pyridine, to form a sulfonate ester of the original silicate.

After that, the sulfonate ester should become a great leaving group (the pKa of sulfonic acid is about -6.5) for a nucleophilic attack, such as via 4 equiv. of sodium ethoxide (sealed away from oxygen in a desiccator), "NaOCH"_2"CH"_3.

Here's what I'm thinking:

Silicon-oxygen bonds are generally known to be pretty flexible, so I'm thinking that should help during the proposed "S"_N2 reaction with the sodium ethoxide.

For zirconia ("ZrO"_2), you might be able to do a similar reaction with sodium oxide, but then use an alkali propoxide instead of sodium ethoxide.

2"Na"_2"O" + "ZrO"_2 -> "Na"_4"ZrO"_4

But again, ask your professor what he or she thinks too. I've never worked with zirconium before.

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