ETHYL BROMIDE FROM VODKA PART ONE

This was an easy experiment. From easy to get chemicals. With a 70% yield based on the limiting reagent.........sodium bromide. ......................I just did this experiment AGAIN one year after this video AND GOT AN 83% YIELD........... I used a 2000 mL RBF and added 470mL of 50% by volume vodka (100 proof). Then I dripped in 270 mL sulfuric acid drain cleaner. Both the vodka and drain cleaner were put in the freezer first to cool them down . Nothing was done to clean or distil the sulfuric acid. It was used straight out of the bottle. Then after it was all dripped in...... I let it go to room temp then added 210 grams of sodium bromide. Distilled everything out until the still head was 65 C. Then I washed with NaCO3 to neutralize the acid. Then washed with water to remove the acid and alcohol. Then washed with concentrated aqueous NaCl to remove the water. Then I added a little anhydrous CaCl2 to remove any alcohol and water. Then I distilled that and everything came over between 37 and 38 C. At this point i had 250 mL of dry ethyl bromide. Then I added 3A molecular sieves to store it in a lab freezer. GOT AN 83% YIELD...................... Please post any questions or comments. Keep in mind when you distill out the product you should probably distill it faster because most of your reagents are water soluble and ethyl bromide is NOT water soluble. So it is easy to separate any extra distillate and the extra heat should push the reaction more forward.....................after i made the ethyl bromide i refluxed it with aqueous NaOH to try to change it back into alcohol but it didnt work............first i dripped the alkyl halide on pure NaOH salt and nothing happened. Then i dripped in water and the temp went higher but that was just from the heat of dissolving NaOH in water because i only got a mL of ethanol after hours of refluxing.................Please post any questions or comments or suggestions. REMEMBER SCIENCE IS GREAT..........................................ALSO KEEP IN MIND A 90% YIELD IS PROBABLY EXPECTED.....SO 70% IS NOT GREAT........BUT THIS IS JUST A GUESS ON EXPECTED YIELDS..........................................PLEASE WATCH PART TWO IF YOU WANT TO SEE HOW I DECIDED ON HOW MUCH OF EACH CHEMICAL TO USE........................also keep in mind that to make diethyl ether is a similar method to making ethyl hydrogen sulfate so you will have trace amounts synthesized as a byproduct......luckily it has to be like 140 C or higher before it really matters alot and i am only taking the temp to 78 C at most and for a short time........most of the time it is like 40 C .......................THIS VIDEO HAS BEEN SIMULATED BUT KEEP IN MIND ALL THE SCIENCE AND TECHNIQUES ARE ALL TRUE AND THIS IS FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES..........