I'm looking through some old papers (Benkeser mainly) and have noticed that which I ignored once before, that n-propylamine can be used instead of ethylenediamine with lithium for reduction using the Benkeser/Birch Reduction.
Now, we know ethylamine can be used too, but it has a fairly low BP (16.6'C), whereas n-propylamine has a BP of ~48'C (which is much better for our purposes, a normal condenser should handle that).
How to get at it? Can people see if they can find any references to the decarboxylation of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) to give n-propylamine (or the same with B-alanine to give ethylamine).
I'm on it myself, but maybe several hands might lighten the load?
Anyway, good luck
Now, we know ethylamine can be used too, but it has a fairly low BP (16.6'C), whereas n-propylamine has a BP of ~48'C (which is much better for our purposes, a normal condenser should handle that).
How to get at it? Can people see if they can find any references to the decarboxylation of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) to give n-propylamine (or the same with B-alanine to give ethylamine).
I'm on it myself, but maybe several hands might lighten the load?
Anyway, good luck