Swim continued the reaction for another 5 hours because the CO2 evolution was still vigorous. Turned off heat, and swim wasn't paying attention as it cooled and found that the color had changed from the nice light tan brown to a darker grey! Contents were quickly poured into a sep funnel and 200ml water was added and the brown color started to separate out again. The other layer is a dirty greyish white with hint of yellow? Swim is just adding all these details for other bees in the future.
Oh yes, the amounts used were: 130ml formamide, 50g mdp2p, 60ml formic acid.
Swim is still wondering why the majority of the formic acid did not distill. Did it convert to something else?
Next step is the hydrolysis.
Swim will use 60g KOH, 200ml EtOH, 50ml H2O for 30 min. No A/B will be done, but freebase will be distilled.
This reaction is definetely easier than those for MDMA, and good for ppl who don't have access to hydrides and such.