video tutorial Make dimethyl oxalate

Name: video tutorial - Make dimethyl oxalate
Uploaded: 2025-12-11T09:03:44.459Z
Duration: 11 min 16 s
Description: As we said before, this is useful stuff and we'll be coming back to it in some future videos and also trying it out in some of the preparations we've done in the past with the ethyl esters.

Goal: synthesize dimethyl oxalate from oxalic acid and methanol using sulfuric acid as catalyst.
Starting material: 64 g anhydrous oxalic acid prepared by heating oxalic acid dihydrate to ~130 °C to remove water.
Reaction: 75 mL dry methanol and 25 mL concentrated sulfuric acid are combined; esterification forms dimethyl oxalate (two carboxyl groups require two equivalents) with stirring and heating to boiling under ventilation.
Workup: mixture cooled, crystals form; overnight chilling (~12 h) yields crude product ~65 g; initial product mass matches starting oxalic acid.
Filtration/drying: rapid filtration, ~30 min drying; filtrate examined for further recovery but additional crystallization from water gave only a small amount.
Purification: recrystallization from hot methanol (60 mL) to yield 55 g dry white crystals of dimethyl oxalate; efficient drying (~45 min).
Product characteristics: dimethyl oxalate is a crystalline solid at room temperature (unlike diethyl oxalate, which is a liquid); final yield ~64% of starting oxalic acid, with ~5 g additional material from filtrate, totaling ~70% overall.
Melting point/test: insoluble in water; rudimentary melting point observed around 45–51 °C (literature ~54 °C); results are reasonably close.
Note: the procedure is intended for future work and comparisons with ethyl esters; stay tuned for more.