I want to obtain an amide from ester. For this reaction I need to work in a anhydrous conditions. I have a methyl benzoate and ethanolamine as starting materials, using dry toluene as solvent and sodium methoxide as catalyst.
You can follow this article for drying Ethanolamine
Cu2O thin films were obtained from CuO films at drying temperatures lower than 290 °C and times shorter than 10 min in open atmosphere. A rapid transformation of CuO films to Cu2O films at 260 °C evidenced the existence of a useful reduction mechanism that was studied. A metal precursor solution was prepared from the mixing of copper acetate and monoethanolamine in isopropanol. Thin films of 5 layers were deposited by the dip-coating method at a withdrawal speed of 6 cm/min. Each layer was dried in a furnace at 230, 260, 275 or 290 °C for 5, 7 or 10 min. X-ray diffraction, reflectance and transmittance in the UV–Vis region and, specular reflectance in the infrared showed that CuO films are obtained at 230 °C. However, Cu2O with good crystallinity and transparency is produced with drying at 260 °C and above, for 10 min and less.
I doubt you need strictly anhydrous conditions. Using reagent grade ethanolamine should do it. Anyway ...
To remove some traces of water you coud store it o.n. over activated 3A-molsieve.
If you want bone dry ethanolamine, it is crucial to keep it under dry argon or nitrogen as it is hygroscopic. Therefor MgSO4 will fail.
Safia Taleb : Never use reactive acidic P2O5 with basic compounds like amines. It will not only fail, it is also higly DANGEROUS!!!
To dry alcohols, I prefer to reflux over magnesium, then distill off the dry compound from the magnesium alcoholate. Should work with ethanolamine as well, but you need to perform a vacuum distillation under inert conditions.