I am doing an apprenticeship as chemical laboratory assistant in switzerland and whenever I get bored, unmotivated or pissed of because I can't isolate my desired product or whatever I watch one of your vids and bam am totally motivated again. So thanks for the great videos and all the effort you put into it.
Fun fact: nigel started his channel as a cover up for his meth business to pay for college but he switched to do youtube full time when his channel blew up
@@lilmaxAlarcxn Get real dude. There are videos of people literally making meth and high explosives and any number of questionable activities on youtube. Nobody honestly think our boy here is making trailer park diamonds.
@@johnnylego807 That's a good theory but maybe you can explain it to the hundreds of thousands of people who have served time for first time offenses and addictions they may have procured from prescriptions that doctors shamelessly profited from then dumped patients on families and communities to deal with by imprisonment and harsh rehab treatments that treat human beings like farmed mammals slotted for slaughter. In this world the words "evidence" and "significant" don't calculate and are meaningless against the word of an official tasked with the duty to imprison and humiliate you. Unless you've personally experienced a court of law in this land or witnessed and attempt to free a man or woman in it's grips you could never truly know it's horrors and abuses like I have. These people need no further incentive to deny you your rights as a human than that badge and what they perceive as their duty.. Much less being proven a liar in a court of Law. They will testify with utmost contempt to your personal freedoms and spit on their own mothers if it meant losing face in front of a colleague or respectively swear on the life of their own children if they had to lie on the behalf of themselves or their respective departments. That isn't justice it's toxic narcissism and poison psychopathy posing as societies greatest protectors and advocates. It's a shame your naive sheltered existence has corrupted your sense of compassion and duty to your fellow man and neighbor into this ugly twisted reality where you believe your captor is your friend and defender. Let's hope your never accused my friend the Law is a constrictor and your a quivering rodent locked in it's cage awaiting the serpents lunch time just as soon as they hang that despicable phrase "The People Vs" before your name.
Yeah but either way that's the amateur way to make meth. The modified Birch reduction used to make meth from ephedrine derivatives is colloquially called "Shake 'n Bake" on the street and is plagued by restriction of starting materials, low yields and an impure end product.
@@achilleslade3771 while not pure it can we washed with acetone and recrystallized with alcohol. The resulting product, while minimal, is better than anything I've ever paid for
@@ryandickinson4228 Ah well. I don't know where you live but it's possible that may be more achievable than where I live. In the US it's extremely difficult to find ephedrine or pseudo, hydriodic acid or red phosphorous and even if somehow obtained the yield is nowhere close to breaking even on expenditure. The P2P method is far superior in my area. Bitter almond oil or almond essential oil as a source of benzaldehyde is easily sourced locally especially in my area where almond farming is commonplace.
I was going to suggest a methylamine HCl synthesis as a joke, but seeing you are already going to do it, then maybe a phenylacetone or a phenylnitropropene synthesis would be fitting :). In all seriousness, your videos are absolutely amazing and they make me want to start my chemistry hobby again.
Wife: Are you watching a video of a guy making meth? Me: No honey, he is performing a birch reduction, a very specific type of reaction Nile: This is the reaction used to make meth. Wife: ............
Sir, I wanted you to know that I think so highly of your work, that my Advanced Chemistry class will be using your videos as guide to synthesizing various chemicals. Thank you.
Well, as a Ph.D. in Chemistry I must say you carry out a wealth of cool reactions! May I humbly suggest which personnally find interesting, perhaps you'll get interested, too? ;)
Seeing it with eyes is really special...We have been taught this reaction so many times but now I do get the real feel of completion..thanks brother. 👍
Being able to see electrons with the naked eye is pretty cool. Thunderf00t did a thing that was similar by dropping the liquid alloy of potassium and sodium in to liquid ammonia which made it instantly pop in to a cloud of free floating electrons. The color was pretty wild too, like a brassy metallic blue. Ah chemistry.
You have to use a conjugated diene. Ironically 2,4 cyclohexadiene could be used (twice) as the dienophile in a Diels Alder, though it wouldn't be very reactive.
You don't need liquid ammonia. Just use liquid amine, like dimethylamine. Sodium produces solvated electrons not only in anhydrous ammonia, but also in amines. Dimethylamine is actually producable at home and liquid at r.t. Eschweleier-Clarke-like reactions of ammonia, formaldehyde, formic acid and possibly hexamine yield dimethylamine if conditions of reaction and proportions of reagents are controlled to prevent formation of other methylamines.
NH3 is way cheeper. why would he do more work for the same thing? if you say: because it is safer.....i have to reply: not really, because you make a precursor with ammonia (so you handle it again). And HNEt2 is flamable, poison and a strong base aswell. no point for me in that.
+philip ferdroß 1. Ammonia is also flammable, highly basic and poisonous. 2. I was talking about dimethylamine, nit diethylamine. Diethylamine is harder to produce. 3. The only reason why you may want to use an amine instead of ammonia is being unable to make liquid ammonia. If he or you can get liquid ammonia, fine. But it is not the only option, in fact, if you can't get dry ice or liquid nitrogen or buy ammonia in canisters, you can use dimethylamine, liquid at room temperature, which you technically can make at home. As I said ammonia is not the only option, there are alternatives, not necesarrily better, but liquid at rt and producable using typical reagents.
The reactant isn't always an aromatic compound, yeah it's probably called birch for aromatics only, but I've done the same reaction before using a non-aromatic compound to produce very specific results.
+Mr.chang cooler thanks! I hope to get all the 1080p ones posted so that its all 4K at some point. I have like 17 1080p ones though. I am going to try and release 2-3 a week for a month or two. Maybe more :)
+Nile Red First, i love your vids, but why would you go 4 k? doesnt that mean 99% of people would see it in a worse resolution if they can only support 1080, like every person i know? I know eventually everything will be 4k but right now only serious gamers or people that always buy the most expensive things because they are so cool... would have atm. Then again i dono why im asking the question when i will never see the response lol. Anyway thanks for all your effort and time.
You know about 12 years ago I was looking for a video like this one and I ended up on the watch list. I'm trippin out on the whole thing. I enjoyed it very much thank you
Hey ! Thanks for your amazing video ! I have a question about pseudoephedrine ! Can i use pseudoephedrine sulphate instead of Hydrochloric acid? To make methamphetamines? If yes then fine! If no why not? And how i can turn it into hydrochloride? I used to use pseudoephedrine hydrochloride but nowadays in my country prevented it ! And i don't want to try something such sulphate while I'm using shake and bake method. I'm sorry of my question but for necessary!.
@@Bolangsamarinda well first get a pan, then get at stove. Put pan on stove. Crack egg. Put egg in pan. Let egg sizzle till crispy around edge. Flip egg. Wait a minute. Take egg out of pan put on plate. Eat egg. Done
I am curious, you demonstrate that the solution turns blue due to the solvated electrons, I am just interested to know what occurs (chemically) for the solution to return to the white colour. I have done some research and I understand that eventually the solution turns to a gold colour once a certain amount of lithium has been added. I would really like to understand how this works and (if it's true about the solution turning gold?) Please no hate I am not an experienced chemist, I am an undergrad in first year, we have not studied organic chemistry yet.
I am honestly not entirely sure. I tried researching it myself and I never found a good answer that I was happy with. Maybe if someone here knows more, they can chime in?
Anna Wynn Lithium bronze is what they call it. Search here on YT for an example. I think that is when you get an excess of solvated electrons. Like a supersaturated sorta. Saturated with electrons.
Solvated electrons are a meme. I just do it in refluxing ethanol and 10-fold excess sodium, so some of it does Birch magic before it makes useless sodium ethoxide. Ammonia is stupid and impractical.
Question about your process: normally, alkali metals attack Teflon. I assume this is because the fluorine in the Teflon "would rather" be ionically bonded to alkali metal than to carbon. Fluorine ion is in lower energy state then one covalently bonded to carbon. Direct contact by the metal results in flashes and the Teflon "scorches". (This is a common treatment when desiring to bond to Teflon.) When the alkali metal dissolves into NH3, the solvated electrons "are looking for something to reduce" (which drives your birch reaction). Why don't the solvated electrons attack the Teflon stir-bar, and rip out the fluorine, as the bare metal does? I assume if there were traces of water, the electrons would reduce the water to H2, as metal does directly? 2nd question: How do you operate stir-bar when there is a large distance between the stir-base and the reaction flask (such as your dry-ice bath or heating mantle)? Do you have special stir-base with extra-strong magnet?
Just a guess but those Teflon molecules are actually one long polymer molecule of fluorinated carbon, and since the carbon bond to almost any atom is the most stable in the universe, that explains why the activated alkali metal atoms although they have a stronger bond strength to some atoms, are not enough to defeat the fluorocarbon Bond
You say the benzene comes over at 75, but benzene boils at 80. Not sure you can distinguish between the two compounds by boiling point. It would be more interesting (but not safe) to give it a whiff, benzene smells nice but dienes tend to smell awful.
To those who dont know aromaticity - In an easy way to undrstnd , its a stabilizing effect / phenomenon in organic comp and one can gain aromaticity when the total electron PAIRS present are odd in no.
I did this experiment in the student lab 8 years ago, and we used waaaaaay more glassware, 2 fumehoods full of condensers, ammonia tanks, cooling baths, traps, etc.etc.
Very interesting video. Quick comment to anyone trying this at home: you can tell if you got your product by using bromine water. Olefins like 1,4-cyclohexadiene will react with the bromine, turning it clear, while neither aromatics like benzene nor alkanes like cyclohexane will react. There's also a characteristic bad smell to olefins, although I can't think of how to describe it. If you've ever smelled MAP gas (yellow cylinder for torches, now mostly made of propylene which is an olefin) then you'll recognize it.
im confused did you delibratley leave out the dropwise method i didnt see it shown.... when the flask stays blue you add drop by drop of water to get rid of the lithium when it stays blue the reaction is over?
Hi NR, for the application of the Birch Reduction in the reaction to produce a certain illegal drug. Could it be that sense the alkyl chain connected to the benzene ring donates electrons to it, causing it to not undergo a reduction to produce a cyclohexyl group?
vote for the re-crystallization tut, i'm curious what you'll use to dissolve the urea. I once tried to grow urea crystals but after realizing i might be just breaking it down into ammonia and CO2 i stopped, forgot bout it til now.
Thanks for the video! It was very helpful. Can I ask you one question? When the reduction by lithium is over, blue color is observed, right? if you use sodium instead of lithium, what color appears?
Blue it's the colour of ammoniated electron so whichever alkali metal you will use or alkaline earth metal as well except Be and Mg then you will get the same result
Yes it should still be blue with a darkening with the heavier compounds, potassium would be HIGHLY reactive, MUCH more than sodium n A LOT much more than lithium, with the color deepening towards a deep dark blue
Something doesn't make sense.. 1. Ethyl Alcohol (the kind you can drink) forms an azeotrope with water - meaning you can not (typically) get all the water out - right? 2. Lithium is decomposed by water - right? 3. You are using "ethanol" in your reaction shown in this video - right? 4. Isn't the Birch reduction supposed to be done under anhydrous conditions? So it seems like some of your lithium would be decomposed by the water in the reaction; and, at the very least, it would make it difficult to know how much lithium (and thus solvated electrons) are in your reaction. What am I missing here? Did I mistake something that was done in the video or have my facts wrong?
Your facts are wrong. Just because you can't make anhydrous ethanol via a normal destillation doesn't mean you can't make it by different means. There are many drying agents that can absorb the water making the ethanol anhydrous.
So many commenting there's better ways or do this or do that.. listen everyone this is not a how to do the easiest or best way video.. And knowone is saying this!! This video is a specific method video!! Knowone is saying This is the best.. it's just a method specific video out of interest..
Would be cool if you teamed up with someone who has access to an NMR machine, so you could explore the structure and purity of your product. Good job, as always
methylamine in methonol has very similar properties to ammonia from a few experiments iv done it seems to dissolve lithium giving the same blue color do you think this could be a safer route to this reaction as ammonia is a pain to handle
Na/li in the pesence of liquid NH3 is birch reduction. Further the conditions for aromaticity are 1. Being planar 2. Every C being Sp2 hybridised - meaning three sigma one pi. 3. Being cyclic 4. Huckels rule having 4n+2 pi electrons Aromatic compounds are extremely stable and usually show conjugation of double single double or double single LP
Now explain the quantum chemistry to someone that knows about quantum numbers but not orbitals and knows about particle physics but not basic chemistry Channels/videos/lectures/books to learn it would be much appreciated as well
Ricardas Ricardas only one hydrogen actually bonds to the carbon during the reaction. The other was already there, but it wasn't shown in the representation of the benzene. In Ochem hydrogens are shown only if it's super necessary.
How is the hell did you lose the shot of it going back to white? The only thing I can think of is your sd card failed randomly right there every time? Or you were using a new editing software and clipped the wrong portion. Please I need to know why
It reduces the OH on pseudoephedrine to make methamphetamine. Very simple but dangerous due to pressure building up. Much safer (but more expensive and time consuming) to use HI to reduce. Oh and cleaning the Sudafed pills is literally more difficult and time consuming than making the actual drug.
I am most curious about the + more you forgot about 😋 ... I would like to know how to synthesize vitamins, aspirin and so stuff, just to get away from my thrilling "fixation". Also, I quite like artificial or natural flavor chemistry.
I am doing an apprenticeship as chemical laboratory assistant in switzerland and whenever I get bored, unmotivated or pissed of because I can't isolate my desired product or whatever I watch one of your vids and bam am totally motivated again. So thanks for the great videos and all the effort you put into it.
+moonbaer01 haha, I am glad I help!
You should totally make me some research chemicals or things that are legal of course lol
Have you tried dipping a match head into 98% Sulphuric acid? It catches alight in 10 seconds
@@rogerandlyndabeall3840 The day's when you source pure Sulphur crystal from N.Z. good day's...
Can I ask what are you trying to isolate ??
Fun fact: nigel started his channel as a cover up for his meth business to pay for college but he switched to do youtube full time when his channel blew up
that is stupid and dangerous to suggest with so many over anxious officers looking at promotion.
@@lilmaxAlarcxn
Get real dude. There are videos of people literally making meth and high explosives and any number of questionable activities on youtube. Nobody honestly think our boy here is making trailer park diamonds.
@@mds1986ms
@@lilmaxAlarcxn Cops can’t “bust” anyone without significant evidence of a crime being perpetrated, which Nile is not even close to having any.
@@johnnylego807 That's a good theory but maybe you can explain it to the hundreds of thousands of people who have served time for first time offenses and addictions they may have procured from prescriptions that doctors shamelessly profited from then dumped patients on families and communities to deal with by imprisonment and harsh rehab treatments that treat human beings like farmed mammals slotted for slaughter. In this world the words "evidence" and "significant" don't calculate and are meaningless against the word of an official tasked with the duty to imprison and humiliate you. Unless you've personally experienced a court of law in this land or witnessed and attempt to free a man or woman in it's grips you could never truly know it's horrors and abuses like I have. These people need no further incentive to deny you your rights as a human than that badge and what they perceive as their duty.. Much less being proven a liar in a court of Law. They will testify with utmost contempt to your personal freedoms and spit on their own mothers if it meant losing face in front of a colleague or respectively swear on the life of their own children if they had to lie on the behalf of themselves or their respective departments. That isn't justice it's toxic narcissism and poison psychopathy posing as societies greatest protectors and advocates. It's a shame your naive sheltered existence has corrupted your sense of compassion and duty to your fellow man and neighbor into this ugly twisted reality where you believe your captor is your friend and defender. Let's hope your never accused my friend the Law is a constrictor and your a quivering rodent locked in it's cage awaiting the serpents lunch time just as soon as they hang that despicable phrase "The People Vs" before your name.
He said " this is how you make meth but I'm not making that and I have no idea why I'm doing this"
Yeah, sure 🙄👍
Trust me! he's missing a few things for meth.
Yeah but either way that's the amateur way to make meth. The modified Birch reduction used to make meth from ephedrine derivatives is colloquially called "Shake 'n Bake" on the street and is plagued by restriction of starting materials, low yields and an impure end product.
@@achilleslade3771 while not pure it can we washed with acetone and recrystallized with alcohol. The resulting product, while minimal, is better than anything I've ever paid for
@@ryandickinson4228 Ah well. I don't know where you live but it's possible that may be more achievable than where I live. In the US it's extremely difficult to find ephedrine or pseudo, hydriodic acid or red phosphorous and even if somehow obtained the yield is nowhere close to breaking even on expenditure. The P2P method is far superior in my area. Bitter almond oil or almond essential oil as a source of benzaldehyde is easily sourced locally especially in my area where almond farming is commonplace.
I was going to suggest a methylamine HCl synthesis as a joke, but seeing you are already going to do it, then maybe a phenylacetone or a phenylnitropropene synthesis would be fitting :). In all seriousness, your videos are absolutely amazing and they make me want to start my chemistry hobby again.
Chemistry is a hell of a drug
Halo but there’s a heaven in it😊
@@darellroasa6846 yeah
Being an Ex-Chemist for some certain people with pull..... Drugs are a hell of a drug. Chemistry is just a way to make it healthier.
drug is hell of chemistry ll
Everything is a drug isn't it and everything is derived from nature
Best educational channel ever......most unique.... you're one of a kind on RUclips man..
Wife: Are you watching a video of a guy making meth?
Me: No honey, he is performing a birch reduction, a very specific type of reaction
Nile: This is the reaction used to make meth.
Wife: ............
Shoulda just said yeah
@@scrambledmandible "Hey, while you're out can you pick me up some Sudaphed? I have a bit of a sniffle."
😁
@@Blakearminstop by the hardware store too and pick up some toluene too would ya?
@@Dragonbyte maybe get some soda bottles, muriatic acid and some other things
Sir, I wanted you to know that I think so highly of your work, that my Advanced Chemistry class will be using your videos as guide to synthesizing various chemicals. Thank you.
+redbeaker2005 whoa, that actually means a lot to me! I love hearing about my videos being used in that way :)
Ur born in 2005
Advanced chemistry at 10 yrs? Wow
@@sawconvention424 I would wager that the 2005 refers to a graduation date and redbeaker2005 is probably teaching that advanced chemistry class.
Well, as a Ph.D. in Chemistry I must say you carry out a wealth of cool reactions! May I humbly suggest which personnally find interesting, perhaps you'll get interested, too? ;)
Sure, go ahead! (sorry for the SUPER late reply)
Don't worry. You weren't too late, I'm just now seeing this a whole 3 years later
@@FirstLast-cc6cv me too
Same
@@Dylan9s5Nash same.
Seeing it with eyes is really special...We have been taught this reaction so many times but now I do get the real feel of completion..thanks brother. 👍
This comment relates with me
Being able to see electrons with the naked eye is pretty cool. Thunderf00t did a thing that was similar by dropping the liquid alloy of potassium and sodium in to liquid ammonia which made it instantly pop in to a cloud of free floating electrons. The color was pretty wild too, like a brassy metallic blue. Ah chemistry.
You still didn't see the electrons, only the effect they produce.
@@yaldabaoth2 That’s how you see anything lol
Im learning chemistry better with you then with my teacher at school :)
+DavideGale I am glad I am helping you :)
Jh
If they just taught us how to make meth in 10th grade we'd all be better at chemistry.
@@kyzylalchemy9776 They did, you just weren't listening lol
Comments:
-70% Make meth
-20%Nitrous oxide
-10%Recrystalization.
You want money??i want you produce this product in malaysia.it very demanding
@@muhdyusuf7225 is it easy to make?
@@muhdyusuf7225 you pay me to come to Malaysia and make meth?
@@K0ester 😂
@@K0ester 😂😂😂😂💀
Thank you so much, for conducting this reaction. It is often mentioned in books, but it's rarely found to be seen.
Because no body wants to die
Not sure if you still have the product of this reaction, but you could always try a diels alder reaction
Unfortunately I dont have it anymore
You have to use a conjugated diene. Ironically 2,4 cyclohexadiene could be used (twice) as the dienophile in a Diels Alder, though it wouldn't be very reactive.
This is just the reaction I was looking for. Can you show me how to oxidize ephedrine?
rhodium erowid, hehe. gl tweaking
@@wagwanpiftingwhatsurbbmpin1673 thanks pal ;)
LOL
... I've heard permanganate is good for that...
@@Bolangsamarinda wait people still use bbm?!
You don't need liquid ammonia. Just use liquid amine, like dimethylamine. Sodium produces solvated electrons not only in anhydrous ammonia, but also in amines. Dimethylamine is actually producable at home and liquid at r.t. Eschweleier-Clarke-like reactions of ammonia, formaldehyde, formic acid and possibly hexamine yield dimethylamine if conditions of reaction and proportions of reagents are controlled to prevent formation of other methylamines.
NH3 is way cheeper. why would he do more work for the same thing? if you say: because it is safer.....i have to reply: not really, because you make a precursor with ammonia (so you handle it again). And HNEt2 is flamable, poison and a strong base aswell. no point for me in that.
+philip ferdroß 1. Ammonia is also flammable, highly basic and poisonous. 2. I was talking about dimethylamine, nit diethylamine. Diethylamine is harder to produce. 3. The only reason why you may want to use an amine instead of ammonia is being unable to make liquid ammonia. If he or you can get liquid ammonia, fine. But it is not the only option, in fact, if you can't get dry ice or liquid nitrogen or buy ammonia in canisters, you can use dimethylamine, liquid at room temperature, which you technically can make at home. As I said ammonia is not the only option, there are alternatives, not necesarrily better, but liquid at rt and producable using typical reagents.
@@phiV268, Substituted amines are known to cause cancer in woman.
The reactant isn't always an aromatic compound, yeah it's probably called birch for aromatics only, but I've done the same reaction before using a non-aromatic compound to produce very specific results.
You mean meth?
I love the blue color in this reaction!
that's the blue meth precipitating out of the solution
The blue color was really nice. Something I've rarely experienced.
9:03 really? To me it seems like leftover ethanol from the washings (ethanol is soluble in ether and boils at 75°C)
Love it how he adds "0,21g of lithium in small portions of 0,4g". Wonder how that happens
He said 0.04g lol
Yes, but the text on the top left says 0,4g
Another great video. I can't wait until we get those 4k resolution videos though.
+Mr.chang cooler thanks! I hope to get all the 1080p ones posted so that its all 4K at some point. I have like 17 1080p ones though. I am going to try and release 2-3 a week for a month or two. Maybe more :)
Nile Red Sounds amazing!
+Nile Red I so need to get my ass in gear and start doing a few vids myself amazing works as always nile great vid :)
+Nile Red oh i thought this was 4k
+Nile Red First, i love your vids, but why would you go 4 k? doesnt that mean 99% of people would see it in a worse resolution if they can only support 1080, like every person i know? I know eventually everything will be 4k but right now only serious gamers or people that always buy the most expensive things because they are so cool... would have atm. Then again i dono why im asking the question when i will never see the response lol. Anyway thanks for all your effort and time.
Show us Lithium hydroxide and a Recrystallization tutorial! great work man
+Stephen Fabiano hate recrystallizations...
why? I love them ^.^ they are so pretty. especially if it's crystallized via electrolysis rather than evaporation.
You know about 12 years ago I was looking for a video like this one and I ended up on the watch list. I'm trippin out on the whole thing. I enjoyed it very much thank you
Oh You're still going on the watch list, just that the watch list is about 200 times as big as back then lol
Hey ! Thanks for your amazing video ! I have a question about pseudoephedrine ! Can i use pseudoephedrine sulphate instead of Hydrochloric acid? To make methamphetamines? If yes then fine! If no why not? And how i can turn it into hydrochloride? I used to use pseudoephedrine hydrochloride but nowadays in my country prevented it !
And i don't want to try something such sulphate while I'm using shake and bake method. I'm sorry of my question but for necessary!.
English lamp hey can you email me pls
robert1980hands@gmail.com
teach me how to cook please help
@@Bolangsamarinda well first get a pan, then get at stove. Put pan on stove. Crack egg. Put egg in pan. Let egg sizzle till crispy around edge. Flip egg. Wait a minute. Take egg out of pan put on plate. Eat egg. Done
wait a minute do you actually cook
I am curious, you demonstrate that the solution turns blue due to the solvated electrons, I am just interested to know what occurs (chemically) for the solution to return to the white colour. I have done some research and I understand that eventually the solution turns to a gold colour once a certain amount of lithium has been added. I would really like to understand how this works and (if it's true about the solution turning gold?) Please no hate I am not an experienced chemist, I am an undergrad in first year, we have not studied organic chemistry yet.
I am honestly not entirely sure. I tried researching it myself and I never found a good answer that I was happy with. Maybe if someone here knows more, they can chime in?
Anna Wynn Lithium bronze is what they call it. Search here on YT for an example. I think that is when you get an excess of solvated electrons. Like a supersaturated sorta. Saturated with electrons.
Solvated electrons are a meme. I just do it in refluxing ethanol and 10-fold excess sodium, so some of it does Birch magic before it makes useless sodium ethoxide. Ammonia is stupid and impractical.
Question about your process: normally, alkali metals attack Teflon. I assume this is because the fluorine in the Teflon "would rather" be ionically bonded to alkali metal than to carbon. Fluorine ion is in lower energy state then one covalently bonded to carbon. Direct contact by the metal results in flashes and the Teflon "scorches". (This is a common treatment when desiring to bond to Teflon.) When the alkali metal dissolves into NH3, the solvated electrons "are looking for something to reduce" (which drives your birch reaction). Why don't the solvated electrons attack the Teflon stir-bar, and rip out the fluorine, as the bare metal does? I assume if there were traces of water, the electrons would reduce the water to H2, as metal does directly?
2nd question: How do you operate stir-bar when there is a large distance between the stir-base and the reaction flask (such as your dry-ice bath or heating mantle)? Do you have special stir-base with extra-strong magnet?
Just a guess but those Teflon molecules are actually one long polymer molecule of fluorinated carbon, and since the carbon bond to almost any atom is the most stable in the universe, that explains why the activated alkali metal atoms although they have a stronger bond strength to some atoms, are not enough to defeat the fluorocarbon Bond
Yo Nigel. How important is it to know the Rydberg's constant and all that stuff in chemistry?
Seen this video about six years ago, just got out and am now currently on parole. Thanks Nile❤
You say the benzene comes over at 75, but benzene boils at 80. Not sure you can distinguish between the two compounds by boiling point. It would be more interesting (but not safe) to give it a whiff, benzene smells nice but dienes tend to smell awful.
dont take a wiff of carcinogens
Add more theoretical plates by using a packed column distillation for better separation of products.
@@quantum7401 do you have a BBM application or something else so I can communicate with you
To those who dont know aromaticity -
In an easy way to undrstnd , its a stabilizing effect / phenomenon in organic comp and one can gain aromaticity when the total electron PAIRS present are odd in no.
What exactly is that final product? Does it have any use at all?
I thought this was a video about shrinking trees. Imagine my surprise.
Anhydrous ammonia is a gas? Liquid ammonium is aqueous is it not?
When you mentioned meth I am sure a couple people pulled out a notebook.
Ha
I did this experiment in the student lab 8 years ago, and we used waaaaaay more glassware, 2 fumehoods full of condensers, ammonia tanks, cooling baths, traps, etc.etc.
That is the benefit of doing it in a proper institution :)
Maybe his house will be condemned as it has all the traces of Meth making ingredients all refluxing off the walls, cuz no fume trap.
A protic solvent is needed. Either liquid ammonia Or ethanol will do. Why both?
Very interesting video. Quick comment to anyone trying this at home: you can tell if you got your product by using bromine water. Olefins like 1,4-cyclohexadiene will react with the bromine, turning it clear, while neither aromatics like benzene nor alkanes like cyclohexane will react.
There's also a characteristic bad smell to olefins, although I can't think of how to describe it. If you've ever smelled MAP gas (yellow cylinder for torches, now mostly made of propylene which is an olefin) then you'll recognize it.
Next time on NileRed "hello guys today we are going to be making meth"
Well thats easy. Just buying here in the UK isn't :(
You sir have massive balls for doing a birtch reduction video haha. Instant subscribe from me :)
...wt
Brought back some good memories of orgo lab!
im confused did you delibratley leave out the dropwise method i didnt see it shown.... when the flask stays blue you add drop by drop of water to get rid of the lithium when it stays blue the reaction is over?
Hi NR, for the application of the Birch Reduction in the reaction to produce a certain illegal drug. Could it be that sense the alkyl chain connected to the benzene ring donates electrons to it, causing it to not undergo a reduction to produce a cyclohexyl group?
Can You Change Zyprexa {Olanzapine} {Thienobenzodiazepine} Into A Benzodiazepine Chemically?
Have you ever considered flame drying your round bottoms for anhydrous reactions?
Man no one appreciated this... 😂
Dear Nilered will you please do a video on making LSD
I feel like drawing hexagons is more fun than what they teach at school
Nile casually teaching an entire generation of meth cooks.
vote for the re-crystallization tut, i'm curious what you'll use to dissolve the urea.
I once tried to grow urea crystals but after realizing i might be just breaking it down into ammonia and CO2 i stopped, forgot bout it til now.
Love all of your vids man, great work!
Just wanted to ask if there is a possibility that you will ever do a Friedel-Crafts reduction video? Cheers!
+Emin Turalić I will eventually try to. For now though, it's not on the list.
Thanks for the video! It was very helpful. Can I ask you one question?
When the reduction by lithium is over, blue color is observed, right? if you use sodium instead of lithium, what color appears?
red
Blue it's the colour of ammoniated electron so whichever alkali metal you will use or alkaline earth metal as well except Be and Mg then you will get the same result
Yes it should still be blue with a darkening with the heavier compounds, potassium would be HIGHLY reactive, MUCH more than sodium n A LOT much more than lithium, with the color deepening towards a deep dark blue
you can use the 1.4-cyclohexadiene in some reductions with Pd/C where it acts as a hydrogen source
At 2:44 you say you added it in .04g quantities but the text says .4g. Which is right?
+The Herb 0.04. I edited it in annotations.
God I miss working in a lab. And having access to an NMR.
Wouldn't use of Na instead of Li induce a greater yield ?
When you realize why this viedeo was made
1:05
This is exactly why I'm watching it lmao
@@lifeofanton1404 nice
Would you be so kind and send me some of you're product😂😏
Recrystallization tutorial using urea as example.
Eewwww
@@notpulverman9660 urea, not urine, kid
Something doesn't make sense..
1. Ethyl Alcohol (the kind you can drink) forms an azeotrope with water - meaning you can not (typically) get all the water out - right?
2. Lithium is decomposed by water - right?
3. You are using "ethanol" in your reaction shown in this video - right?
4. Isn't the Birch reduction supposed to be done under anhydrous conditions?
So it seems like some of your lithium would be decomposed by the water in the reaction; and, at the very least, it would make it difficult to know how much lithium (and thus solvated electrons) are in your reaction.
What am I missing here?
Did I mistake something that was done in the video or have my facts wrong?
Your facts are wrong. Just because you can't make anhydrous ethanol via a normal destillation doesn't mean you can't make it by different means. There are many drying agents that can absorb the water making the ethanol anhydrous.
So many commenting there's better ways or do this or do that.. listen everyone this is not a how to do the easiest or best way video.. And knowone is saying this!! This video is a specific method video!! Knowone is saying This is the best.. it's just a method specific video out of interest..
I appreciate that you understand :)
Liquid ammonia.... But you say right after that you use a glacial alcohol since no water can be present ? What is the NH3 dissolved into lol ?
It is liquid ammonia like you said. No solvent just the condensed gas
Is it 0.4g or .04g lithium for each addition...?
What does he mean by lithium reacting with ammonia to provide free electrons?
Damn it NileRed, why you gotta make videos that get me on a list?
Would be cool if you teamed up with someone who has access to an NMR machine, so you could explore the structure and purity of your product. Good job, as always
How does the liquid stir itself???
Magnetic stirrer
methylamine in methonol has very similar properties to ammonia from a few experiments iv done it seems to dissolve lithium giving the same blue color do you think this could be a safer route to this reaction as ammonia is a pain to handle
You say it's a dry reaction. But dry ammonia boils at below freezing. What solvent was the ammonia dissolved in?
He had the reaction going while the flask was in a dry ice/acetone bath
i was hoping you were going to tell me how to make the birch tree version of maple syrup
Me too😅😅
It would be cool if you could cover other reactions seen in organic chemistry
Na/li in the pesence of liquid NH3 is birch reduction.
Further the conditions for aromaticity are 1. Being planar
2. Every C being Sp2 hybridised - meaning three sigma one pi.
3. Being cyclic
4. Huckels rule having 4n+2 pi electrons
Aromatic compounds are extremely stable and usually show conjugation of double single double or double single LP
Now explain the quantum chemistry to someone that knows about quantum numbers but not orbitals and knows about particle physics but not basic chemistry
Channels/videos/lectures/books to learn it would be much appreciated as well
What kind of lithium being used herein?
I was thinking: How is he going to reduce a tree?
Same. I thought he was going to extract the oils from birch bark. But instead he made meth.
Why are two hydrogens added instead of one? Two electrons form a single bond, but two hydrogens bond to the carbon. Can someone please explain
Ricardas Ricardas only one hydrogen actually bonds to the carbon during the reaction. The other was already there, but it wasn't shown in the representation of the benzene. In Ochem hydrogens are shown only if it's super necessary.
Question: Lithium is hella poisonous etc, is these reagents necessary. I mean what is the mechanism with ALCL3 etc.
How about how to mix and store vit B12 Involves mixing 1000 U gr or Meg Grams of B 12
You must be in lab 24/7 I really look up to you for that. If only I was this dedicated to my research!
it's wild that you ran birch reduction in your garage.
meth?
DEMONIZED
he made a vid on how it's made but he took it down
Who needs RUclips money if you're cooking meth
Demonetized*
@@thatonegayfurry4177 do you have it?
@@ssaulgoodmann asking for a friend?
How is the hell did you lose the shot of it going back to white? The only thing I can think of is your sd card failed randomly right there every time? Or you were using a new editing software and clipped the wrong portion. Please I need to know why
Just learnt about this reaction in class today
please make a video on Chromyl Chloride based reaction.
This is the moment nile becomes Heisenberg
Thanks for the videos mate, I find them really interesting.
Everything is really interesting now
Does ammonium act as a solvent or can it also provide proton to reactant?
It reduces the OH on pseudoephedrine to make methamphetamine. Very simple but dangerous due to pressure building up. Much safer (but more expensive and time consuming) to use HI to reduce. Oh and cleaning the Sudafed pills is literally more difficult and time consuming than making the actual drug.
@@MediaSubliminal hi friend can you help me
Hi, friend
@@Bolangsamarinda I ll help
Nice job altogether. Thanks!
bro broke bad 💀
You would have been rich back in the 90's rave days with designer drugs. :)
how can you add .21g in .4g batches?
Please suggest Best book for basic chemistry.
Why only in ortho para positions, instead of meta?
depends on what substituent is on the benzene ring and whether they direct ortho para or meta
can i use calcium sulfate as a drying agent
How do you get ethanol to be anhydrous?
you're a big f***ing GENIUS! keep it up
you don't happen to have a paper on the colour of solvated electrons?
I am most curious about the + more you forgot about 😋 ... I would like to know how to synthesize vitamins, aspirin and so stuff, just to get away from my thrilling "fixation". Also, I quite like artificial or natural flavor chemistry.
Birch redux can and does 'over' reduce the aryl of ephedrine to the cyclohexadiene
Why didn't you gas it off or titration
A preparation of liquid ammonia in laboratory would be nice. Or did you buy it?
+Hans Harz I made it in a video that I posted like a week ago.
Thanks, must have overlooked it.