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I was shopping around in the local asian mart today, and I stumbled across several boxes of bottles of Amyl Acetate Banana flavoring. After searching on the internet, I've found information that this stuff is supposedly 25% Amyl Acetate in water. I was wondering if it would be possible to turn this stuff into Amyl Nitrate fairly cheaply if one were to have a free supply of Nitric acid.
Here's what I thought of and wanted to run through here for discussion. A solution of 50% NaOH would be added in molar excess to the Amyl Acetate in water and refluxed for 1-2 hours. After the Amyl Acetate was hydrolyzed to Amyl Alcohol, the Amyl Alcohol would be separated out and washed with a small saline solution. The amyl alcohol would then be put in a flask with an equimolar amount of Nitric acid and refluxed for 1-2 hours, neutralized with an excess of sodium bicarbonate, and then separated out.
Does this sound feasible? Will a solvent be needed to extract the amyl nitrate in the final step, or will it not be soluble once the nitric acid is neutralized?
If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Then give up. There's no use being a fool about it.
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Joe, what would you need amyl nitrate for? ;D
Explosives?
If you mean 'poppers' - it's nitrite, and is made even yet simpler (see on Rh's).
The hydrolysis stage sounds OK to me - you might have to constantly stir the mixtr or add some PTC though.
Saturate the liquor w/NaCl to maximize the yeild of alcohol, and bee sure to distill it prior to subsequent use.
Sincerely,
Antoncho
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I've gotten confused as to which one is whice. The DEA lists poppers as being amyl nitrite, but several sites on the internet that sells it lists Amyl Nitrate. Even the bottles of video head cleaner sold around here list the compound as butyl nitrate instead of butyl nitrite. I had come to the conclusion that both compounds worked in a similar manner, but I guess I was wrong.
If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Then give up. There's no use being a fool about it.
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Alkyl nitrates are not psychoactive, they will only give you a headache and pose a potential explosion hazard (nitroglycerin is glyceryl-trinitrate).
Amyl nitrite (1-pentyl nitrite) is easily made from amyl alcohol (1-pentanol) and nitrous acid (made in situ from H2SO4/NaNO2, as directed in https://www.thevespiary.org/rhodium/Rhodium/chemistry/eleusis/nitrites20.html (https://www.thevespiary.org/rhodium/Rhodium/chemistry/eleusis/nitrites20.html)
(use the procedure for butyl nitrite, but substitute the butanol for an equimolar amount of pentanol.
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Sodium Nitrite is not easy to come by around here, and if I did stumble across some I wouldn't waste it on amyl nitrite.
If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Then give up. There's no use being a fool about it.
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it's sad really. aurelius has about a liter of amyl nitrite but has absolutely no interest in its "prescribed" use. maybe aurelius should do some nitrite powered wacker research...
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BTW, it's not important what alcohol you use, propanol and butanol will work too. Methanol and ethanol won't, because the latter has a BP of only 17°C or so and the former is a gas.
I'm not fat just horizontally disproportionate.
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I guess you must figure that also those hippie-crack abusers at jam band festivals must be raving homosexuals as well, condidering they're using Nitrous and all. I actually don't have any desire for the substance, but I have a friend who really enjoys it and I would like to hook him up with a bottle of amyl to thank him for a couple gallons of reagent grade acids he gave me.
Osmium, will isopropanol work in the same manner as propanol? Am I right in assuming it is the nitrite group that provides the activity, and has very little to do with the attached hydrocarbon chain?
If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Then give up. There's no use being a fool about it.
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Yes, it is the nitrite grouping that's the active thing. When you change alkyl chain you almost only manipulate the volatility of the alkyl nitrite.
Synthesis of Isopropyl Nitrite from Isopropanol
https://www.thevespiary.org/rhodium/Rhodium/chemistry/isopropylnitrite.html (https://www.thevespiary.org/rhodium/Rhodium/chemistry/isopropylnitrite.html)
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Can you get potassium nitrate? See ye olde Muspratt text for an ethyl nitrite ("nitrous ether") preparation that includes easy instructions for potassium nitrite preparation:
http://bcis.pacificu.edu/~polverone/muspratt1/c-834.html (http://bcis.pacificu.edu/~polverone/muspratt1/c-834.html)
I've tried this KNO2 preparation once, substituting ballmilled grapevine charcoal for lampblack. I obtained a pale yellow solid that produced copious red-brown fumes when mixed with acetic acid. I haven't tried it more than that one proof-of-concept time because I can easily and inexpensively obtain NaNO2. If you want to purify the K nitrite, KNO2 is far more soluble in cold water than KNO3 is. You can't use this solubility difference trick with NaNO3/NaNO2 because they have nearly identical solubilities.
19th century digital boy