Aliphatic primary alcohols, when intercalated in certain ion-exchanged montmorillonites, react preferentially via an intermolecular nucleophilic displacement of water to give high yields of di-(alk-1-yl) ethers, rather than the competitive intramolecular dehydration to alkenes; an essentially similar process yields polymeric material, poly(phenylenemethylene), from benzyl alcohol, but aliphatic secondary and tertiary alcohols, in contrast, yield alkenes almost exclusively.
No takes yet. Share an insight, caveat, or question.
Ballantine et al. (1981) studied this question.