anywyas I doubt that the precuror alone (without solvents) when heated to like 190'C or 180' would actually have enough pressure to break this high PSI cylinder... but maybe.. any thoughts?
No, the ketimine alone will not add pressure at that temp, dont worry about that. But the rearrangement is somewhat lower yielding without any solvent.
I was thinking substituting para-dichlorobenzene (avaiable OTC as mothballs) bp 173°C for ortho-dichlorobenzene (bp 180°C). The only boring thing is that the p-dichlorobenzene melt at 55°C, while the o-dichlorobenzene is a liquid at room temperature. What you could do for the rearrangement is to add the ketimine in melted mothball (purified bee4 by distillation), then reflux it an hour or so at 173°C, then cool it to ~60-70°C and add toluene, then tolu should dissolve both the ketamine and the dichlorobenzene, A/B and extraction will give the ketamine. Or simply you could reflux it, then cool it a bit and setup for vacuum distillation, and evap the dichlorobenzene at the waterpump (bp ~60° @ 10mmHg). Beeware p-dichlorobenzene look like toxic stuff!
No need for a pressure bomb i think.
