Acetic anhydride

Acetic anhydride is an esterification agent which is corrosive to metals. It is a colourless liquid with strong vinegar-like odour. It is mostly used in making plastics, fibers, pharmaceuticals, dyes and explosives.

Acylation, an alternative to silylation, enables the conversion of compounds that comprise of active hydrogens (-OH, -SH and -NH) into esters, thioesters, and amides by the action of a carboxylic acid or derivative. The carbonyl group adjacent to the halogenated carbons favors the improvement of electron capture detector (ECD) response. Acylation has several benefits:

• It increases the stability of compounds by protecting unstable groups.
• It may render volatility on substances like carbohydrates or amino acids, that have several polar groups that they are non-volatile and generally decompose on heating.
• It allows the separations not possible with underivatized compounds.
• Compounds are detectable at very low levels with an ECD.

Acetic anhydride is a reagent utilized to form fragmentation-directing derivatives for GC/MS analysis.

Suitable for the derivatization of acetyl, acetaminophen, alcohols, aldoses and partially methylated aldoses, aldosterone, amines, amino acids, amino sugars (in polysaccharides), amino sugar methyl glycosides, 2-amino-2-deoxyhexoses, arginyl peptides, aryl sulfate esters, bile acids, carbamates, carbohydrates, cerebrosides, cystine and cysteine (in peptides), desmethyldoxepin, 3,4-dihydroxyphenylglycol, estrogens, glycitols, hexopyranosides, hexosamines, hydroxamic acids, hydroxyamines, n-hydroxycarbamates, hydroxy steroids, inositols, 4-methoxy and 3,4-dimethoxyphenethylamine, methyl ester, methyl(methyl O-methyl-a-D-glucopyranosid)uronates, nucleosides, nucleoside bases and sugars, partially methylated pentose and hexoes, peptides, phenolalkylamines, phenylethylamines, polysaccharide constituents, postaglandins A,B and E, serotonin, sialic acids, sugars, natural sugars and tryptamine.

Reagent for acetic anhydride, acetyl, n-acetyl, n-acetyl-n, o-acetyl, acetate, aldononitrile acetate, aminoglycitol acetate, aryl acetate, permethyl acetyl, methyl ester, trifluoroacetyl, bis-trimethylsilyl, trimethylsilyl polyamino alcohol, and O-trimethylsilyl (TMS).

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