Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Trithioacetone cracking

lindy - 16-5-2017 at 04:31

From (Ber., 22 1035-1045) Thio-derivitaves of Ketones, synthesis of trithioacetone can be easily made from passing H2S into a cold mixture of acetone and conc. HCl.

Two questions. What is 'cracking' and how would one produce thioacetone from this? Has anyone tried?

I thought the worst smells were cadaverine, putrescine, and maybe some mercaptans like what goes into natural gas.

I have seen a good youtube video chemist synthesize cadaverine and putrescine, and he said the putrescine was the worst and "really smelly". Fair enough.

My question is, would this chemist or any other who wouldn't have any problem making cadaverine even attempt thioacetone? Is it really orders of magnitude worse in smell, or is that just a misconception?


Schleimsäure - 16-5-2017 at 04:36

Well, from wikipedia on Thioacetone:

"In 1889, an attempt to distill the chemical in the German city of Freiburg im Breisgau was followed by cases of vomiting, nausea and unconsciousness in an area of 0.75 kilometres (0.47 mi) around the laboratory due to the smell.[7] The soap manufacturer Whitehall Soap Works later noted in an 1890 report that dilution seemed to make the smell worse and described the smell as "fearful".[8] Thioacetone is considered a dangerous chemical due to its extremely foul odor and ability to render people unconscious, induce vomiting, and be detected over long distances."

Certainly I would work on a microscale.

lindy - 16-5-2017 at 05:23

Yeah, good old Freiburg. But thioacetone isn't on the list as the world's worst smells. Usually it's cadaverine. I actually asked about ordering some once back in the 90's. When I realized that even triple sealed and put in a box, and that the UPS guy's van would smell of death for days, I realized I wouldn't be able to handle it.

Then I watch a guy make it, and then say that the putrescine was worse.

Actually I'm interested in three things. One is how much worse is thioacetone, and to gauge I just thought to ask if someone would make a tiny bit of cadaverine would they make triacetone, too.

Second is that if cracking involves heat and a catalyst, would any sort of pyrotechnic mixture do that job. That's just curiosity.

And third is technology in non-lethal forms of dealing with situations that would otherwise be lethal, specifically smelly stuff. That seems to work for Skunk, which is just yeast and baking soda. ;-) Would love to know what is in that stuff.

Nicodem - 17-5-2017 at 10:39

Quote: Originally posted by lindy  
Then I watch a guy make it, and then say that the putrescine was worse.

Putrescine has not particularly worse smell relative to other amines. Like all amines, it smells badly, but not much worse than pyrollidine, piperidine, isopropylamine and others. In fact, because it is much less volatile it is quite easy to work with it. It is a joke compared to volatile mercaptanes or isonitriles.

lindy - 17-5-2017 at 12:14

What sort of non-lethal non-toxic smelly compound might this skunk yeast and baking soda mixture be producing? (they could be special gmo yeast cells, so i guess it could be almost anything.)