Hi!
So I've been researching the DMT synthesis from tryptamine for some time now... And I guess I have got a fair grasp of the processes involved, in theory.
However, lacking much lab expirience, my questions are more general... That's why I'm posting in thsi forum too.
First... Why does KrZ run the synthesis for 60hours, and gets a yield of only 67%, while in "Journal of Medical Chemistry, 1994, vol. 37, No. 19 pg.3029" (as quoted in
https://www.thevespiary.org/rhodium/Rhodium/chemistry/tryptamine2dmt.html
) the reaction runs for about 3 hours and achieves a yield of 83%? That makes me think the workup described in the journal article is somehow superior... But why?
Then it comes to purifying the reaction product...
The journal articles goes:
"Saturated aqueous k2co3 was added and the MeOH was removed under vacuum. The residue was diluted with H2O and the product was extracted with EtOAc twice, washed with salt sol. twice, dried, and concentrated."
I don't understand what's being done there. Why do they add the saturated K2CO3 solution? What will EtOAc not dissolve (thus being useful for purification) and why is the product (with MeOH removed) diluted with H2O first, why isn't extraction with EtOAc possible directly?
And what does the wash with salt solution (do they mean NaCl or K2CO3 by "salt") do?