Wow, with this kind of pennies, may be your governement have definitivaly supported a new generation of home phenethylamine cookers. Copper++ will accelerate the rxn of Zn with HCl, wich in IMHO is a competitive rxn with the real rdxn that seems to proceed through a nitro-Zn intermediate (you'll see when you make it), so may be you need more Zn just reducing to pennies to dust. Copper hydroxides (Merck) seems that are solubles in alkaline solutions when fresh made and if only CuCl is formed, part of it could be filtered. Well, I'm especulating may be it won't so easy.
In other hand seems that BenWiFFen have solved the copper question, so now you need to make Zn dust.
Other way is foxy2 if works with common materials.
Anyway, how much is a penny ? Do you know why they are made with Zn ? , I believe is becuase Zn is absolutely cheap, even technical grade from Aldrich is not expensive, but I've found it 4 times cheaper from a minor company, and it's perfect. And see this Merck):
10255. Zinc.
Zn; at. wt 65.38; at. no. 30; valence 2. Group 2b element. Abundance in earth's crust: 0.02% by wt. Natural isotopes: 64 (48.89%); 66 (27.81%); 68 (18.57%); 67 (4.11%); 70 (0.62%); eight radioactive isotopes and two isomers. Occurs in smithsonite or zinc spar, sphalerite or zinc blende, zincite, willemite, franklinite, [(Zn,Mn,Fe)O.(Fe.Mn2)O3] or gahnite (ZnAl2O4). Has been known since very early times. Commercial forms: ingots; lumps; sheets; wire; shot; strips; sticks; granules; mossy; powder (dust). Prepn: Gowland, Bannister, Metallurgy of Non-Ferrous Metals (Griffin, London, 1930); Zinc Production, Properties and Uses (Zinc Development Association, London, 1968). Reviews: Zinc, C. H. Mathewson, Ed.,
A.C.S. Monograph Series no. 142 (Reinhold, New York, 1959) 721 pp; Schlechter, Thompson, "Zinc and Zinc Alloys" in Kirk-Othmer, Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology, vol. 22 (Interscience, New York, 2nd ed., 1970) pp 555-603; Aylett, "Group IIB" in Comprehensive Inorganic Chemistry, vol. 3, J. C. Bailar, Jr. et al., Eds. (Pergamon Press, Oxford, 1973) pp 187-328.
Bluish-white, lustrous metal; distorted hexagonal close-packed structure; stable in dry air; becomes covered with a white coating of basic carbonate on exposure to moist air. mp 419.5 deg. bp 908 deg. d25 7.14. Heat capacity at constant pressure (25 deg): 6.07 cal/mole deg. Mohs' hardness 2.5. When heated to 100-150 deg becomes malleable, at 210 deg becomes brittle and pulverizable.
Burns in air with a bluish-green flame. Loses electrons in aqueous systems to form Zn2+ E deg (aq) n/Zn2+ 0.763 V. Slowly attacked by H2SO4 or HCl; oxidizing agents or metal ions, e.g. Cu2+, Ni2+, Co2+, accelerate the process. Reacts slowly with ammonia water and acetic acid; rapidly with HNO3. Reacts with alkali hydroxides to form "zincates",ZnO22-, which are actually hydroxo complexes such as Zn(OH)3-; Zn(OH)42-, [Zn(OH)4(H2O)2]2-.
Caution: Inhalation of fumes may result in sweet taste, throat dryness, cough, weakness, generalized aching, chills, fever, nausea, vomiting. Zinc chloride fumes have caused injury to mucous membranes and skin irritation. Ingestion of sol salts may cause nausea, vomiting, purging. See E. Browning, Toxicity of Industrial Metals (Appleton-Century-Crofts, New York, 2nd ed., 1969) pp 348-355.
USE: Galvanizing sheet iron; as ingredient of alloys such as bronze, brass, Babbitt metal, German silver, and special alloys for die-casting; as a protective coating for other metals to prevent corrosion; for electrical apparatus, especially dry cell batteries, household utensils, castings, printing plates, building materials, railroad car linings, automotive equipment; as reducing agent in organic chemistry; for deoxidizing bronze; extracting gold by the cyanide process, purifying fats for soaps; bleaching bone glue; manuf sodium hydrosulfite; insulin zinc salts; as reagent in analytical chemistry, e.g., in the Marsh and Gutzeit test
for arsenic; as a reducer in the determination of iron. It is a nutritional trace element.
"At 210 deg becomes brittle and pulverizable" it sounds good. It's extensively used in galvanization and in batteries. May be it won't be a problem.
I'm veery optimistic with this rxn, may be too much, but now I'm a bit exhalted. My reasons are that the patent says that (Antoncho) "
As was already mentioned, it only deals with the compounds in which either R1 or R2 or both of them are hydrogens. Unclear yet if it will make any differense. (R1 and R2 are in positions 2 and 3 of the aromatic ring, respectively, and R3 is position 4).
a) R1=R2=H b) R1=H, R2=OCH3
b) R1=OCH3, R2=H and R3= AlkO- or PhCH2O- (Alk = C1-C3)
This means that is for 4 substituted nitrostyrenes, (R1=2 position and so on) with a CH3O in 2 or in 1 (only one) or just H in both.
It has worked with 2,5 DMNS, this is not the patent. What about 2,4,5 or 3,4,5 or 2,4,6,? and what about the corresponding nitropropenes and 2,5 DMPNP ? It can work or not, but it should work still better with the 4 substituted nitrostyrenes, and why not with the nitropropenes ? We'll se in the test bench, I'm very optimistic.
