labphoto:

Crystals of freshly prepared aluminium-isopropoxide.

Aluminium-isopropoxide is an alkoxide what means it is the conjugate base of isopropanol. While it reacts with water, aluminium-oxide and isopropanol will form. It was made by the reaction between isopropyl alcohol and aluminium metal:

2 Al + 6 iPrOH → 2 Al(O-i-Pr) 3 + 3 H 2

The plan is, that I will use this thing for an Oppenauer oxidation what uses acetone and aluminium-isopropoxide as an oxidant:

An advantage of the Oppenauer oxidation is its use of relatively inexpensive and non-toxic reagents. Reaction conditions are mild and gentle since the substrates are generally heated in acetone/benzene mixtures. In my case I used acetone/toluene, since the aluminium-isopropoxide is not really soluble in acetone, and benzene has an unpleasant odor.

The best pictures from the blog, what are tagged as my portfolio, including the upper one, could be purchased at Society6 as a nice looking, high quality print: http://society6.com/labphoto/Aluminium-isopropoxide_Print