Colorless to light yellow liqui
Diethyl D(-)-tartrate is mainly used in chiral pharmaceuticals, chiral intermediates and chiral catalysts. It can be used with titanium in enolic asymmetric epoxidization. The compound d-alpha-tocopherol is the principal compound present in natural vitamin E sources. At present, d-alpha-tocopherol and other tocopherol derivatives are used in pharmaceuticals, foods and animal feeds. It is used as a food additive.
Distil the esters under high vacuum and store them under vacuum or in an inert atmosphere in a desiccator in round bottomed flasks equiped with a vacuum stopcock. They have also been distilled by Kügelrohr distillation and/or by 'wiped-film' molecular distillation. They are slightly soluble in H2O but miscible with EtOH and Et2O. [Gao et al. J Am Chem Soc 109 5770 (5771) 1987, IR: Pristera Anal Chem 25 844 1953, Beilstein 3 III 1025 for D-(-), 3 IV 1232 for L(+).]
