History
This substance was studied alongside ether for the first time by German alchemist August Siegmund Frobenius in 1730, subsequently by French chemists Fourcroy and Gay-Lussac in 1815. Swiss scientist Nicolas-Théodore de Saussure also studied it in 1807. French chemist and pharmacist Polydore Boullay along with Jean-Baptiste André Dumas noted the role of ethyl sulfate in the preparation of diethyl ether from sulfuric acid and ethanol. Further studies by German and Swedish chemists Alexander Mitscherlich and Jöns Berzelius suggested sulfuric acid was acting as a catalyst, this eventually led discovery of sulfovinic acid as an intermediate in the process. The advent of electrochemistry by Italian physicist Alessandro Volta and English chemist Humphry Davy in the 1800s confirmed ether and water were formed by the action of sub-stoichiometric amounts of sulfuric acid on ethanol and that sulfovinic acid was formed as an intermediate in the reaction.
Read more about this topic: Ethyl Sulfate
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