Perhaps phenylalaninol would dehydrate and hydrolyze in acidic solution to form P2P in the same manner that ephedrine does.

Probably, but the reaction will be slower than with ephedrine. Maybe with concentrated H2SO4. Of course, where are you getting phenylalaninol is the real question.

I've seen talk elsewhere of going to benzyl cyanide and ultimately P2P.
I know it's a bit of a waste of the gift that is PA but I've searched and haven't seen the idea discussed here.

You need to work some more on your search skills:

http://127.0.0.1/talk/index.php/topic,839.msg10047.html#msg10047

 

Regardless, should it really be omitted from the sticky just because it has been addressed to some extent elsewhere?
Perhaps the first post of this thread could be tidied up to include an index of all routes discussed within.

These links aren't exactly a secret to those that use the search tool:

https://the-collective.ws/forum/index.php?topic=1431.0;all

https://the-collective.ws/forum/index.php?topic=19896.0;all

https://the-collective.ws/forum/index.php?topic=816.0;all

https://the-collective.ws/forum/index.php?topic=15914

https://the-collective.ws/forum/index.php?topic=18487

https://the-collective.ws/forum/index.php?topic=22172

and of course this one isn't either:

http://www.erowid.org/archive/rhodium/chemistry/phenylacetone.html

as was said long ago on the Hive, the subject has been beat to death    As always, the end results from the effort applied

Kolbe electrolysis of Phe with acetic acid theoretically should give amphetamine (among tons of by products). Kolbe is a pretty well known named reaction; I think this was even on the Hive. Or any kind of decarboxylative radical coupling could do it, with a shitload of Phe-Phe dimerization. Might still be worth it given how cheap and innocent Phe and AcOH are compared to amphetamine.

The Kolbe decarboxylation doesn't work with alpha-amino acids.

Didn't know that. Oh well.

Phe can be oxidized (this can be done electrolytically) into phenylacetonitrile. It doesn't take much imagination to figure out what you could do with DOPA, the 3,4-dihydroxy derivative of Phe. 

Welcome. I'm interested in the synthesis of nitriles by oxidation of primary amines (for research purposes), and I have several article requests. I am seeking articles that build from techniques involved in this article:

Shono, T., Matsumura, Y., & Inoue, K. (1984). Electroorganic chemistry. 87. Indirect electrooxidation of amines to nitriles using halogen ions as mediators. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 106(20), 6075-6076.

The above study reports, “In a typical procedure, a solution of octylamine (517 mg, 4 mmol) in methanol (30 mL) containing NaBr (618 mg, 6 mmol) was placed in a cell equipped with a carbon rod cathode (8 mm phi) and a platinum anode (2 x 2 cm). The distance between two electrodes was 3 mm and no diaphragm was used. A constant current (0.3 A, 75 mA/cm^2, terminal voltage 5-7 V) was passed through the cell at about 10 degrees C with external cooling. After 8.6 F/mol of electricity was passed, the yield (95%) of heptyl cyanide was determined by GLC method. Then, solvent was evaporated in vacuo at room temperature, and the residue was poured into water. The product, heptyl cyanide, was extracted with CH2Cl2 and isolated by bulb-to-bulb distillation (400 mg, 3.20 mmol, 80%)…The reaction of oxidized active species “Br+” with RCH2NH2 in the presence of bases formed by cathodic reaction will yield bromoamines (RCH2NHBR) as the first intermediates, which are then converted to imines (RCH=NH) through dehydrobromination. The intermediates (RCH=NH) will again react with (Base) to yield nitriles (RCH2NHBr).” They also reported, “The electrooxidation of phenylalanine under our reaction conditions gave phenylacetonitrile (80%).”
These are the articles I am looking for:

Yamazaki, S. (1997). A Simple and Convenient Method for the Synthesis of Nitriles by Oxidation of Primary Amines with NaOCL in Ethanol. Synthetic Communications, 27(20), 3559-3564. DOI: 10.1080/00397919708007077

Rajender Reddy, K.,  Uma Maheswari, C., Venkateshwar, M. , Prashanthi, S., Lakshmi Kantam, M. (2009). Catalytic oxidative conversion of alcohols, aldehydes and amines into nitriles using KI/I2-TBHP system. Tetrahedron Letters, 50(18), 2050-2053.

Okimoto, M., Takahashi, Y., Numata, N., Nagata, Y., & Sasaki, G. (2005). Electrochemical Oxidation of Benzylic Amines into the Corresponding Imines in the Presence of Catalytic Amounts of KI. Synthetic Communications, 35(15), 1989-1995.  DOI: 10.1081/SCC-200066648

Fleischmann, M., Korinek, K., Pletcher, D (1971). The oxidation of organic compounds at a nickel anode in alkaline solution. Interfacial Electrochemistry, 31(1), 39-49.

Thanks in advance.

Here are the other two papers. I exported the PDF to images and manually cropped out the institution name bullshit. God knows what other identifying info is hidden in the PDF data. Greedy fucks want everyone to pay.

P.S. Look at page 3561 of the Yamazaki paper. Good to see that piperonyl amine [1-amino-3,4-(methylenedioxy)-1-phenylmethane] can be oxidized to piperonyl cyanide [1-cyano-3,4-(methylenedioxy)-1-phenylmethane] in 95% yield with grocery store reagents .

Here is a procedure that has worked for SWIz.  From phenylalanine to PAA.  This can bee scaled up to 500g successfully in a 5gal bucket with 5kg of ice

Put 300g phenylalanine in a stainless steel bucket with ice bath and overhead stirring, add 1500ml DH2O and 50g NaOH.
Once mixed together add Ice and 320g TCCA in 15g portions, make sure there is always ice present.
 halfway into the TCCA addition add another 25g NaOH, when its all added let stir for 2 more hours.
Mix in 3-400ml 33% Hcl, add 1lt of DCM and stir for 20 mins.
If for some reason the hydrolysis cant be done instantly i'd recomend storing the dcm extraction in a HDPE bucket with a couple of litres of water on top. This seems to lessen the tar formation.

collect DCM. DCM is washed 2x with 250ml 10% NaOH and 2x with 5lt water.
evap in a large open mouth vessel OUTSIDE. you really don't wan't to be breathing the fumes at this point.

take remaining brown liquid and add to 5lt RBF in water bath with rapid stirring, add 700ml 35% Hcl and set up for reflux @ 55C for 1-1.5h
add 700ml DH2O and set temp to 85C for 4-5hours.
once cooled collect dirty PAA crystals and return to clean RBF.
add 500ml water and enough Na2CO3 until PAA dissolves, then add 200ml xylene and stir for 30 mins.
sep off xylene keep water and return to clean RBF, add Hcl and presto, instant fluffy white PAA ~120g

Credit goes to cactus for the actual write-up, but this procedure works as it is written. 

You have Br2 around an amine - it'll probably attack this. Seems unlikely to work. Was the idea to eliminate HX from that product so you'd have an imine to hit with a Grignard? You'd lose a full equivalent of the Grignard to HX (HBr in this case), and then it'd deprotonate the imine, costing you a second equivalent, and you'd be left with something a lot less electrophilic and reactive, so it may not go at all.

Your alkyl bromide simply isn't a stable compound. It will undergo spontaneous elimination of HBr and give you an imine.