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PICRIC ACID ETHERS^545

TRINITROANISOLE

2,4,6-Trinitroanisole (m. p. 67°C) forms white needles (sp. gr. 1.408), very

difficult to dissolve in water: at 15°C 100 ml of water dissolve only 0.02 g and at

50°C 0.137 g of trinitroanisole. The product is sparingly soluble in carbon disulphide

and carbon tetrachloride, relatively easily soluble in alcohol and still more so in

ether, benzene, chloroform and ethyl acetate.

CHEMICAL PROPERTIES

By the action of alkalis trinitroanisole is hydrolysed slowly in the cold and

more rapidly in the hot, forming the corresponding picrates (Salkowski [3]). It

also undergoes slow hydrolysis under the influence of water, picric acid being formed.

Hydrolysis may take place even in the presence of moisture in the air, so that trinitro-

anisole may in the course of time form picrates.

The methoxy group is rather reactive and may be substituted. For example,

boiling with ammonia leads to the formation of trinitroaniline:

(1)

When boiled with ethyl alcohol trinitroanisole is converted to trinitrophenetole:

(2)

It is, therefore, necessary to use methyl alcohol as the solvent for the recrystallization

of trinitroanisole.