I am working with a reagent that is prone to hydrolysis for my chemical reaction. For that reason, one of the procedures that I am following recommends the use of freeze-pump-thaw cycles to degass the solvent. However, can I just use an anhydrous solvent instead of going through this process? Forgive me if this is a very obvious question.
If all the reagents and substrates are stable to oxygen (= oxidant and radical species), you don't have to degas your solvent. However, if the original paper was recommending the degas process, I think some of your materials are indeed oxygen-sensitive. This is all what I can advise now. If you provided more specific info., I would be able to give you more specific answer! Good luck!
If your reagents are stable to oxygen or atmospheric moisture, you can go ahead with anhydrous solvent under nitrogen or argon without degas.
Dear Samuel Jacobo,
If you are working with an anhydrous solvent, obviously you are carrying out some reactions which are highly air and moisture sensitive. It is always better to degas the solvents prior to use. Best way to achieve good results in excluding any unknown dissolved (or saturated with unknown gas) gas is to employ freeze-thaw method using argon gas. This will ensure efficient degassing and the reaction can be carried out without any worries. Once the solvent is subjected to several cycles of freeze-thaw in a Schlenk flask, use cannula for transferring the solvent to the reaction vessel or alternately freeze-thaw cycle can also be repeated on reaction mixture if it is required.
All the best
Balakrishna
Thank you everyone for your responses. They have been incredibly helpful.
Dear Samuel, thank you for asking this interesting technical question. If you are working with a moisture-sensitive compound and use carefully dried solvents, there is no real need to degass the solvent. However, always keep in mind that there is moisture present in the ambient air. Thus in this case it is advisable to work under exclusion of air (e.g. Schlenk line, dry-box etc,) right away. Good luck with your research!
Dear Samuel, thank you for your interesting question, I guess even though using anhydrous solvent could be beneficial, but that seems applying degassing system would be necessary to eliminate some unsatisfied solved gases which might involve your reaction, such as, O2, SO2, SO3, CO2 etc.
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