for what it is worth the synth from sodium ethyl sulfate and NaNO2 runs fine, it uses a fair bit of NaNO2 for the amount nitroethane produced
100g NaNO2 + 160g NaHEtSO4 + (catalytic amount)KHCO3 + heat =yeilded 25g nitroethane and a similar amount of what is assumed to be ethyl nitrite, that disappears in the water wash.
yeild ca 30% (yeilds could be improved by mixing reagents better than was done for this experiment)
rxn goes quik, 1/2 hour. its making the sodium ethyl sulfate that is tedious.
i'll warn ya though you need a shitload of headroom cuz the rxn foams ALOT! like a 2l flask for the above size rxn.
that other route via ethanol and NaNO2 also runs (triied nanonscale), but uses HUGE amounts of DCM that has to be stripped off, so it is volumetrically problematic. if i remember its like 250mls DCM to get a couple mls nitroproduct.
methods that scales better would sure be nice.
btw - how were they planning on oxidizing the ethylamine?
as in cobalt