Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Paracetamol -> 4-Aminophenol -> Aniline?

DFliyerz - 2-6-2015 at 07:08

While looking for a path to aniline from easy to obtain chemicals, I noticed that sometimes paracetamol is hydrolyzed to make 4-aminophenol which is used by photography hobbyists. From there it would theoretically be easy to just perform a dehydration reaction on the 4-aminophenol to form aniline, which would normally be fairly hard to obtain. This is pretty much my first experience in organic reaction mechanism, so tell me how I did!

gdflp - 2-6-2015 at 07:32

I have thought about this method as well, but there are some major issues. Synthesizing 4-aminophenol from paracetamol shouldn't be too difficult, an acid hydrolysis should be high yielding. The issue is that no "dehydration" of this will occur. To remove the oxygen, the typical procedure is to distill over zinc dust, but this may or may not work. It was discussed briefly here. There are numerous books from the late 19<sup>th</sup> century that reference the reaction of phenol to benzene by distillation over zinc dust, but I have yet to see one which gives a definitive yield.

byko3y - 2-6-2015 at 08:10

This one should go to the begginning section, mainly because the OP is trying to talk about reactions he have no idea about.
>This is pretty much my first experience in organic reaction mechanism, so tell me how I did!
I bet have no experience in organic chemistry, neither you have one now, because experience is all about performing things, and not imaging them.
Still, you might try the reaction and get the real experience of chemistry, but why did you come to this forum? You need some basic equipment and reagents to try your ideas. Even if you fail - you get the experience.

DFliyerz - 2-6-2015 at 08:24

Quote: Originally posted by byko3y  
This one should go to the begginning section, mainly because the OP is trying to talk about reactions he have no idea about.
>This is pretty much my first experience in organic reaction mechanism, so tell me how I did!
I bet have no experience in organic chemistry, neither you have one now, because experience is all about performing things, and not imaging them.
Still, you might try the reaction and get the real experience of chemistry, but why did you come to this forum? You need some basic equipment and reagents to try your ideas. Even if you fail - you get the experience.


I do have some experience in O Chem and lots of experience in inorganic, the only reason I posted here is because I don't have the reagents to test this at the moment. I could get some paracetamol later today, but my zinc isn't in powder form, I don't have H2SO4, and I still need to go buy some sand for my heating bath.There's no need to be rude.

[Edited on 6-2-2015 by DFliyerz]

blogfast25 - 2-6-2015 at 08:54

Quote: Originally posted by DFliyerz  

I do have some experience in O Chem and lots of experience in inorganic, the only reason I posted here is because I don't have the reagents to test this at the moment. I could get some paracetamol later today, but my zinc isn't in powder form, I don't have H2SO4, and I still need to go buy some sand for my heating bath.There's no need to be rude.



Ignore the village idjut.

The reason why this should have been in beginnings, in accordance with forum rules, is that your post contains no references.

I'm sure a moderator will now move it there.

Thanks.

CuReUS - 2-6-2015 at 23:42

Quote: Originally posted by DFliyerz  
While looking for a path to aniline from easy to obtain chemicals

the best way to make aniline from OTC chemicals is doing a hoffman reaction on benzamide(which can be made from benzoic acid and urea).Schimdt reaction could be done directly on benzoic acid,but sodium azide is a dangerous chemical to work with.
if you want a cheap source to buy it,just by acetanilide and hydrolyse that to get aniline.Acetanilide is way cheaper than aniline.

[Edited on 4-6-2015 by CuReUS]