Hello friend terbium. You know I value your opinion, but just what is "strange" about the color? You better not be implying that even one fucking word of my post is incorrect. (Oh yeah--there is one little word that is not true, and I didn't mention all of the equipment involved, but I had put things in such a way as to protect the guilty. Like Nicholson said--"you can't handle the truth!")
Instead of burgundy, call it reddish orange. Or orangish red, or--hey! who the fuck cares what color it was? The crystals are white. That's what matters. Send a drop box address terbium, and SWIA will send you a sample. Do a bio-assay. Then give your esteemed opinion.
About using column: there was a concern that if too much water was in the solution, that upon reduction with borohydride, too much borohydride would be reacting with water and not enough would be available for reduction. This was pointed out by LaBTop himself--and it weighed heavily on SWIA's mind. What also weighed heavily on SWIA's mind was a note from a bee terbium knows well that someone who wasn't him had always used much MORE boro than LaBTop's write-up, or at least that's what SWIA understood. Since SWIA was significantly reducing the amount of boro, he was concerned about reduced yield. Now that it's over and results being stellar, fears were groundless.
The main reason for the column was that SWIA was planning on adding silicagel to the soution during imine formation so to take up the water of formation, but then decided to say fuck it, he was too tired and he would just cross his fingers. Believe me, before the mdma distilled over at usual temp and usual appearance, SWIA was sweating bullets that something had fucked up, because of water affecting a portion of the boro and not enough being available for reduction, and that he would have two products--imine and amine.
Another thought about the color. It was completely different from a previous reduction, where the color stayed lemonade green the entire time. The immediate change in color to a deep reddish orange worried SWIA too. Possible reason is that SWIA was using MeOH that had been sitting for almost 9 months and that had MeNH3 in it. The MeOH was cloudy. But in defense of the column--SWIA had to pump the MeOH into the reactor anyway, so why not let it flow through a column and remove water. Plus he noticed with a little relief that the MeOH flowing into the reactor was clear, not cloudy like the MeOH flowing into the column. So he reasoned that the column was a success. And besides, I am not telling anybody what to do or how to do it, I'm just reporting what SWIA did.
Truth is, SWIA was one big fucking ball of nerves the whole time, proof of which was that he made me post about two dozen times in 48 hours, something I have never done before or since, plus PM several eminent chemist bee ahead of time asking what they thought about the reduced boro, plus PM another eminent bee with a stream-of-conscious letter that must have rambled on for several pages. (My apologies, sir.) Indeed, SWIA was one twitchy motherfucker last 72 hours.
But now SWIA is sitting back and relaxing, 'cause he's seen those little white crystals.
So flame away, dudes-- SWIA cares not. And neither do I. 'Cause we are relaxed and content. (Oh yeah, content about that miniscule amount of product. Think there will be enough for anybody else?)
