Editing Ethylene oxide (section)

===Dehydrochlorination of ethylene and its derivatives===
Dehydrochlorination of [[2-chloroethanol]], developed by Wurtz in 1859, remains a common laboratory route to ethylene oxide:

: <chem>Cl-CH2CH2-OH + NaOH -> (CH2CH2)O + NaCl + H2O</chem>

The reaction is carried out at elevated temperature, and beside [[sodium hydroxide]] or [[potassium hydroxide]], [[calcium hydroxide]], [[barium hydroxide]], [[magnesium hydroxide]], or [[carbonate]]s of alkali or alkaline earth metals can be used.<ref name="oe5">{{cite book
|chapter=Chapter V. Producing ethylene oxide through ethylene
|title=Ethylene oxide
|editor1=Zimakov, P.V. |editor2=Dyment, O. H. |publisher=Khimiya
|year=1967
|pages=155–182}}</ref>

With a high yield (90%) ethylene oxide can be produced by treating [[calcium oxide]] with ethyl hypochlorite; substituting calcium by other alkaline earth metals reduces the reaction yield:<ref name="oeII">{{cite book
|chapter=Part II. Synthesis of ethylene oxide. Overview of reactions of formation of ethylene oxide and other α-oxides
|title=Ethylene oxide
|editor1=Zimakov, P.V. |editor2=Dyment, O. H. |publisher=Khimiya
|year=1967
|pages=145–153}}</ref>
: <chem>2 CH3CH2-OCl + CaO -> 2 (CH2CH2)O + CaCl2 + H2O</chem>