Vinyl ether, also known as divinyl ether, divinyl oxide, Vinethene (pharmaceutical trade name) and ethenoxyethene (IUPAC), is a clear, nearly colorless, volatile liquid which was briefly used as an inhalation anesthetic. It can be cyclopolymerized by itself and serves as a cross-linker in copolymerizations.
Much to the dismay of some pharmacologists, the synthesis and isolation of pure vinyl ether proved to be a difficult challenge for chemists; vinyl ether was suspected to be a nearly ideal anesthetic as its structure was the combination of an alkene and an ether. In practice, vinyl ether proved to have favorable properties that allowed its brief usage as an anesthetic; on the other hand, it left many unimpressed. Aggravated by the issue of potentially toxic degradation over long-term storage and possible hepatic toxicity, vinyl ether began to leave the operating theater. Today, vinyl ether is a relic in the field of anesthesiology; however, the analytical techniques used to study its pharmacology laid the groundwork for the testing of new anesthetic agents.