Yeah, does this method work on Phe?
I'm tryin ta figger it out here - firstly have I gathered the essential ingredient list correctly: amino acid, alkali-metal carbonate and PEG. Is disodium carbonate the same as washing soda? where do you get this carbonate stuff from?
Okay, so what's happening in this reaction? I can see that the PEG *might* esterify with the amino, so then how does that pesky =O get removed? Does the carbonate do that? Or is there something else happening in between. Is that alkali metal doing something to the carbonyl? Does the alkali metal maybe somehow make the PEG donate some hydrogens and make it into poly ethene glycol. and our amino into amphetamine.
C'mon peoples, what's going on? this is a very promising thread. There's a chemical mentioned in there which I can't find on chemfinder: 'diphenylmethylene glycinate' That sounds like the ester of phenylmethanol(benzyl alcohol) and glycine (aka aminoacetic acid) What has that got to do with the reaction? It's snuck in next to the PEG in the example reaction described. I can't see what it would do either. other esters aren't mentioned in the rest of it.
What's the mechanism? Methinks it might have something to do with making the alkali metal deionised with electrons donated via the microwaves. If that's the case, the carbonate protects the amine group, and the alkali metal (Na shall I say?) tears up the oxygens and leaves behind a methyl where there was once a carboxylic acid... Deionisation of the alkali metal would explain the warning about mixing the carbonate salt properly through it.
If that's the case, then the PEG is just a nice high-boiling solvent substrate.
Hmmm... could PEG be used in other microwave reactions, for example decarboxylation with an enone?
Shit man, I have nooo idea. someone with more know-how want to give some clues on this one? Please excuse my rambling, I am really interested in microwave chemistry (and for that matter anything new and unusual, and/or OTC) - and I would love to understand this reaction, it might lead somewhere.
I know naaaathing.