I found some posts from methwerx entitled 'the kolbe in my grandmothers diary', which seemed to give the impression that this route works.
Post 185570
(WizardX: "Re: A strange, possible, amphetamine synthesis", Serious Chemistry) by wizard x seems to also gives more accurate information.
So, I will regurg what I gather from all of these informations:
Both the phenylalanine and acetic acid used must be made into sodium salts (via NaOH). Dimethyl Formamide is the best solvent to get the phenylalanine dissolved (it's nice and cheap too!). Pt electrodes, quite close together, are required to get adequate current flow happening (1cm or less). And the mix needs to be kept nice and cool while it's cooking up - and stirring helps too. An excess of the sodium acetate salt is required to ensure the reaction is biased towards the formation of amphetamine formation, but not too much as this causes a lot of intermediates, where the radicals of especially the acetate bond to the =O and other similar undesirable products are produced.
Okay, so the Wiz says 19-24% is the yield, which sounds fine considering that phenylalanine is freely available, and inexpensive. (even from 15g extracted from tablets, that's still 3g amphetamine, a reasonable quantity of precursor for a nano cook to meth)
The question I have is - will the amphetamine come out of the solution via A/B - or is something else needed (fractionation)?
Also, could a sparkless dc motor provide some solution agitation - would it be safe with all that ethane generation going on? Could the ethane gas be channeled safely away by using some silicone tubing above the anode, and thus allow a more conventional motor be used to provide agitation?
I want to work out the first stage, going from phenylalanine to amphetamine first, and then I will start working on the method for the amp to meth process, preferably also using electro.
By the way did anyone else see that quote on one of the kolbe threads somewhere saying that there's already crews doing it this way, anyone else think so too?
I know naaaathing.