"thick Al (only little surface area, so the Al doesn't have to reduce ketone to dissolve, but can concentrate on the imine instead)" Thanks! I have access to strips of aluminum that are used in mid-welding, so I'd like to use the appropriate cutting machine to saw it into chunks, then amalgamate it. The reaction would take about 2 days to react, but at least one wouldn't have to worry about it boiling over.
"employing good strirring so that the imine has a chance to get to the Al/Hg surface" You know that motor with a spinning dish on top of it in a microwave? Well, I'll be replacing the motor with a faster one, so the next time I need to stir a reaction, I'll put the flask on the spinning dish, then suspend a glass rod into the mixture. There's no need for the rod to spin; the dish will do all the work. Maybe marbles could be added near the end of the reaction to speed things up. Peace!
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