I appologize, following is purely hypothetical and written in hurry.
I don't remember where, but I have read that the original Friedel-Crafts reaction was carried out with aluminium and not AlCl3. Friedel and Crafts inncorrectly assumed that the aluminium was the catalyst, this was later on proved to be AlCl3, which was formed in situ. AlCl3 could be substituted for another L.A, such as AlBr3
1.
I was thinking about the possibility of preparing 4-methylamphetamine OTC. Reaction of benzene, chloroacetone w/ AlCl3 to yield P2P is a known reaction
2. What about toluene + AlX3 (or even plain Al powder) and chlororacetone --> 4-methyl-P2P?
Chloroacetone is pretty nasty to handle, it could however be prepared in several ways
3. An OTC approach would be to simple generate chlorine, (by dripping HCl over KMnO4 or sodiumhypochlorite) and passing thru acetone, the yields are bad and some polychlorinated ketone is formed but it works. Aceton to be chlorinated should be very dry, this minimises the formation of byproducts according to a patent that I've unfortunately lost.
When finally the 4-methyl-P2P is formed a good old Leuckart would work for amine. Ammonium formate is not OTC, nor is formic acid. Formic acid could be prepared from oxalic acid (OTC)
4. Ammonium formate could then, of course be prepared by treating ammonia (OTC) with formic acid.
Even if this worked out fine, it would nedless to say be low yielding prep. But considering the price of starting materials and OTCness it would be worth investigating for those interested in stimulants.
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1: Post 413291
(Mountain_Girl: "Preparation of Aluminium Bromide, AlBr3", Methods Discourse)2: J. Am. Chem. Soc.; 1940; 62(6); 1622-1622.
3: https://www.thevespiary.org/rhodium/Rhodium/chemistry/haloacetone.html
4: https://www.thevespiary.org/rhodium/Rhodium/chemistry/formic.acid.html
Thoughts?