I am using thionyl chloride in may reactions, but recently i found that it lost its activity may be due to moisture and bad sealing of the container, is there any possible way to regain it‘s activity, or should i discard it??
Dear Rana Diab when thionyl chloride (SOCl2) reacts with water / moisture, only gaseous reaction products are formed (SO2 and HCl, see attached equation). Thus the thionyl chloride cannot really lose its reactivity. To make sure that you have good quality and highly reactive thionyl chloride I would suggest that you freshly distill it prior to use It has a boiling point of 76 °C. Thus it can easily be distilled at normal pressure. Use a drying tube filled with CaCl2 in order to prevent any moisture contamination (see attached picture).
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