pyridine synthesis

Guest · Tue May 17, 2005 6:30 am

Pyridine FAQ

The manufacture of Pyridine is a very interesting topic,

It can be manufactured in a few different ways

1) from Black Pepper(Piper nigrum)
(piperine)C17H19NO3 = 285.162.
Synonym.—Piperyl-piperidine.

2) from acetaldehyde + ammonia + formaldehyde, with a zeolite catalyst
3) extracted from bone or coal oil,

The percentages of pyridine in Coal Tar can range dramitically, but if I can remember correctly from literature, the pyridine ,must be cracked at 700C to get a reasonable amount of Pyridine,

But Black Pepper is very cheap and common,
There are two types of black pepper extract, there is the oil, which can contain up to 20% and the powder, which can contain up to 95% piperine,

Heating piperine, in a dry distillation with soda lime(caustic) produces Piperidine

Piperidine is then heated to 300C with H2so4(sulphuric acid) and turns to PYRIDINE, upon where it can be seperated and fractionally distilled @ 115C to afford pure PYRIDINE

Ref: http://www.ibiblio.org/herbmed/eclectic/bpc1911/piper-nigr.html

Not too bad, considering this all comes from pepper, caustic soda and drain cleaner!!

Of course you could go on to make piperonyl, but the choice is completely up to you.

Syn