sodium carbonate isomerization ??

[FlaskGenie]

Swim has some safrole he would like to isomerized and is fresh out of KOH. Swim has some sodium carbonate and some sodium bicarbonate. Someone  told swim he could use bicarb but found nothing in TFSE.  Please feel free to flame me but if you do could you leave a URL please.  Thanks in advance.

[Novice]

Neither NaHCO₃ nor Na₂CO₃ is a strong base enough, and that's probably why you didn't find anything about it in TFSE.

I don't even think it works with NaOH...

[ApprenticeCook]

Swim used NaOH a long time ago and got zippo product coming out...
Some say it works but for swim it didnt...
KOH and KOH only.... and as swim was informed it must be flakes or pellets, not a basic solution you have evapd (thanks paranoid)... easy to find, just bee patient.

[methyl_ethyl]

KOH and KOH only

You do not really believe that do you?  There are a multitude of interesting routes regarding the isomerization of safrole, many of which do not require strong bases, and high temperatures, and/or long reaction times.

I am sure the FSE would point you in the right direction if you were interested in learning different routes for the isomerization of safrole.

regards,

m_e

[ning]

if one were to use a suitable phase-transfer catalyst.