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Why didnt Jesse Pinkman learn how to synthesize phenylacetic acid?
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Mercy Phillip Ahmed
Why didnt Jesse Pinkman learn how to synthesize phenylacetic acid?
I don’t know for sure but here’s my guess. Phenylacetic acid is a common precursor to both amphetamine and methamphetamine. It is a controlled substance because of this and is not trivial to make from commercially available materials. One route, starting with toluene, would be to monobrominate the methyl group of toluene (Br2/light), then make the Grignard (Mg/ether) and then treat with dry ice (CO2). In a lab, these are pretty simple reactions but in a kitchen lab problematic (Br2 is nasty stuff, the by product of bromination of toluene will be HBr, and the Grignard reaction requires anhydrous conditions.
Once you have phenyl acetic acid, you can convert it to phenyl acetone by treatment of it with anhydrous sodium acetic in acetic anhydride at reflux for 16 h or so. Work up is a pain as you have to distill off the excess acetic anhydride and extract into ether/wash with water to get rid of any remaining sodium acetate and then distill off the phenyl acetone. Again, all simple procedures in a lab, not so much in your kitchen. Also, there are no readily available sources of acetic anhydride or sodium acetate. You also have to be able to do a simple distillation.
Then, you are ready to make the methamphetamine. One route is shown below and is to react the phenylacetone with methyl amine, then reduce the resulting imine (maybe catalytic hydrogenation or LAH reduction, either is non-trivial in your kitchen).
Over all, Jesse could have learned how to make phenyl acetic acid but it is still a long way to the desired amphetamines.
I don’t know for sure but here’s my guess. Phenylacetic acid is a common precursor to both amphetamine and methamphetamine. It is a controlled substance because of this and is not trivial to make from commercially available materials. One route, starting with toluene, would be to monobrominate the methyl group of toluene (Br2/light), then make the Grignard (Mg/ether) and then treat with dry ice (CO2). In a lab, these are pretty simple reactions but in a kitchen lab problematic (Br2 is nasty stuff, the by product of bromination of toluene will be HBr, and the Grignard reaction requires anhydrous conditions.
Once you have phenyl acetic acid, you can convert it to phenyl acetone by treatment of it with anhydrous sodium acetic in acetic anhydride at reflux for 16 h or so. Work up is a pain as you have to distill off the excess acetic anhydride and extract into ether/wash with water to get rid of any remaining sodium acetate and then distill off the phenyl acetone. Again, all simple procedures in a lab, not so much in your kitchen. Also, there are no readily available sources of acetic anhydride or sodium acetate. You also have to be able to do a simple distillation.
Then, you are ready to make the methamphetamine. One route is shown below and is to react the phenylacetone with methyl amine, then reduce the resulting imine (maybe catalytic hydrogenation or LAH reduction, either is non-trivial in your kitchen).
Over all, Jesse could have learned how to make phenyl acetic acid but it is still a long way to the desired amphetamines.
I don’t know for sure but here’s my guess. Phenylacetic acid is a common precursor to both amphetamine and methamphetamine. It is a controlled substance because of this and is not trivial to make from commercially available materials. One route, starting with toluene, would be to monobrominate the methyl group of toluene (Br2/light), then make the Grignard (Mg/ether) and then treat with dry ice (CO2). In a lab, these are pretty simple reactions but in a kitchen lab problematic (Br2 is nasty stuff, the by product of bromination of toluene will be HBr, and the Grignard reaction requires anhydrous conditions.
Once you have phenyl acetic acid, you can convert it to phenyl acetone by treatment of it with anhydrous sodium acetic in acetic anhydride at reflux for 16 h or so. Work up is a pain as you have to distill off the excess acetic anhydride and extract into ether/wash with water to get rid of any remaining sodium acetate and then distill off the phenyl acetone. Again, all simple procedures in a lab, not so much in your kitchen. Also, there are no readily available sources of acetic anhydride or sodium acetate. You also have to be able to do a simple distillation.
Then, you are ready to make the methamphetamine. One route is shown below and is to react the phenylacetone with methyl amine, then reduce the resulting imine (maybe catalytic hydrogenation or LAH reduction, either is non-trivial in your kitchen).
Over all, Jesse could have learned how to make phenyl acetic acid but it is still a long way to the desired amphetamines.
I don’t know for sure but here’s my guess. Phenylacetic acid is a common precursor to both amphetamine and methamphetamine. It is a controlled substance because of this and is not trivial to make from commercially available materials. One route, starting with toluene, would be to monobrominate the methyl group of toluene (Br2/light), then make the Grignard (Mg/ether) and then treat with dry ice (CO2). In a lab, these are pretty simple reactions but in a kitchen lab problematic (Br2 is nasty stuff, the by product of bromination of toluene will be HBr, and the Grignard reaction requires anhydrous conditions.
Once you have phenyl acetic acid, you can convert it to phenyl acetone by treatment of it with anhydrous sodium acetic in acetic anhydride at reflux for 16 h or so. Work up is a pain as you have to distill off the excess acetic anhydride and extract into ether/wash with water to get rid of any remaining sodium acetate and then distill off the phenyl acetone. Again, all simple procedures in a lab, not so much in your kitchen. Also, there are no readily available sources of acetic anhydride or sodium acetate. You also have to be able to do a simple distillation.
Then, you are ready to make the methamphetamine. One route is shown below and is to react the phenylacetone with methyl amine, then reduce the resulting imine (maybe catalytic hydrogenation or LAH reduction, either is non-trivial in your kitchen).
Over all, Jesse could have learned how to make phenyl acetic acid but it is still a long way to the desired amphetamines.
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