Zn/HCOOH reduction of nitropropane failure

joe_aldehyde · huxleys associate

ok, i see.
so, bandil, your proposed procedure seems more and more like a CTH to me, do you have a writeup for this one? do i add activated Zn and the formate and then the IPA layer with the nitropropane, stir with reflux? i have Pt with Pd on Al2O3 and Pd/C 10%, does adding one of them make any sense in this reaction?
i'm not quite sure anymore if what i'm heading towards with this reaction is a dissolving metal or CTH reduction!

sle, thanks for the tip!

actually, the use of toluene for extraction makes much sense towards the "azeotropical drying" procedure. if the reaction mixture is first extracted with toluene while acidic, and then extracted while basic, simple addition of a bit of HCl to the toluene and azeotropic removal of the water leaves the salt as residue. adding more acid than the equivalent amount of amine shouldn't even cause any problems as the solubility of HCl in H2O ought to be significantly greater than in toluene and is thus removed upon water removal. if not...well. then the use of a desiccator might help.

if i'm not stupidly ignoring any well-established points, this is by far the easiest and fool-proof procedure for dirty salt formation!

even the am-phet-amine hydrochloride could conveniently be prepared using this procedure since the addition of water-insoluble drying agent (e.g. silica gel) to toluene will remove water and leave the HCl*salt suspended in toluene to be filtered off.

anime · Sat Jun 18, 2005 1:00 pm

joe_aldehyde · huxleys associate

i suck....thanks, anime! well yea 100g Pd/C and 10g Pt/Pd are waiting to be used. do you think i can nicely substitute Pt/Pd on Al2O3 for the Pd/C stuff? my Pd/C is still wet for storage, does it have to be dried before use? since there is no note about using dry methanol in the CTH, i guess i can use it wet as is.