https://www.thevespiary.org/rhodium/Rhodium/chemistry/ketamine2.html (https://www.thevespiary.org/rhodium/Rhodium/chemistry/ketamine2.html)
undecane is used as a high boiling point solvent I assume. My question is would this reaction be affected by increads pressures? I have a high pressure reaction pot that I would like to use for this step so I can replace the undecane with a cheaper more otc solvent.(shouldn't you be using the freebase?)
There are a couple of dissadvantages when it comes to rearanging the freebase:
The freebase needs a longer time to rearange compared to the hydrochloride salt which results in more unwanted byproducts.
When a solvent like decahydronaphthalene for example is used when rearanging the ketimine freebase the precipated insoluble tar will make the the extraction of the ketamine using dilute HCl almost impossible.