How to Make Ethene (Ethylene) - Catalytic Dehydration of Ethanol

In this video, I make ethene gas (also known as ethylene) by catalytic dehydration of ethanol.
With the formula C2H4, ethene is the simplest alkene, a class of hydrocarbons containing carbon-carbon double bonds. Alkenes are very reactive and can be converted to various different molecules. As a few examples, they can be hydrogenated to form alkanes, halogenated to form halogenoalkanes, reacted with water to form alcohols, and polymerized to form polyalkenes.

Ethene can be produced by dehydrating ethanol (removing a water molecule). I use an Aluminum oxide catalyst, which I showed how to make in a previous video, to catalyze the dehydration of ethanol.

I also show how you can test the ethene produced by using iodine water. (Bromine water is typically used instead, but I didn't have any so I had to improvise.)

How to Make Aluminum oxide: youtube.com/watch?v=tC5D5wRSr60

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