https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/ed086p488 (access required, but your ACS membership gives you 25 free articles a year if you don't have institutional access).
On Jul 19, 2019, at 10:40 AM, Denlinger, Kendra <denlingerk**At_Symbol_Here**XAVIER.EDU> wrote:Hello everyone,I'm teaching an organic lab right now (my first time teaching this course), and we're supposed to do a Diels-Alder reaction in a few weeks. It's a reaction between cyclopentadiene and maleic anhydride, and the students are supposed to "crack" dicyclopentadiene to cyclopentadiene using a distillation with mineral oil, and then react cyclopentadiene with maleic anhydride in ethyl acetate (which is a very exothermic reaction). Long story short, the whole thing sounds like an accident waiting to happen.I know there has got to be a safer (and maybe even greener!) Diels-Alder reaction out there for organic lab students, but I don't know exactly where to look and thought maybe it would be a good question for all of you! I don't have a long time to search and test things, so if someone has a Diels-Alder procedure you use at your university that works and is safer, I would love to hear about it!Thanks for any assistance!Kendra Denlinger--- For more information about the DCHAS-L e-mail list, contact the Divisional membership chair at membership**At_Symbol_Here**dchas.org Follow us on Twitter **At_Symbol_Here**acsdchasKendra Leahy Denlinger, Ph.D.Adjunct FacultyDepartment of ChemistryXavier University