Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Acquiring Tert-amyl alcohol

ibuilddinosaursforaliving - 15-5-2011 at 23:51

I'm a bit new to this, and I found sciencelab.com and JITlab.com offers it, but after I ordered from sciencelab, I searched and found out that they're a scam, so I tried JITlab, and they don't seem to want to ship it either.

So after cancelling those orders I found spectrumchemical.com. Somebody in another thread mentioned getting chems from there, so would this one sell it in a timely manner? (under 2 weeks?)

ibuilddinosaursforaliving - 17-5-2011 at 01:59

Fuck.

I tried like crazy to get this.

All the major suppliers/RC companies/molportt. This was frustrating.

If I got a website domain plus PMB it could all be mine...great. What would it take to be a reseller? Probably about the same...?

DJF90 - 17-5-2011 at 02:56

Make it. Shouldnt be too difficult on a preparative scale; Ethylmagnesium halide on acetone.

ibuilddinosaursforaliving - 23-5-2011 at 05:46

Ethylmagnesium bromide/chloride seems to be just as difficult to get as 2-methyl-2-butanol.

Anybody have an account with a supplier I could order through? I'll throw some extra money for your troubles!

Jor - 23-5-2011 at 07:10

To make ethylmagnesium bromide, all you need is KBr or NaBr, H2SO4 and ethanol to make bromoethane, and react this with magnesium in anhydrous ether to obtain the ethylmagnesium bromide.

MagicJigPipe - 23-5-2011 at 19:17

What do you need it for? Maybe there's an acceptable alternative? How much do you need? I agree with Jor and that you're probably better off just making a small amount of it (if that's what you need). That synthesis IS somewhat advanced for someone who hasn't done a grignard before. It's easy to screw up. It sounds simple in writing: Just run some HBr through water to get hydrobromic acid then react with ethanol. That statement is deceptively simple. Furthermore, trying to get the ether dry enough without sodium and performing a grignard reaction can be pretty difficult for someone that has never done it before. Combine that all together and you've got quite some work on your hands. Just don't be disappointed if you fail and keep trying. Write down everything you do so you can learn from your mistakes. Do it on a small scale(at first)!

Good luck either way. I, so far, have not found a source for t-amyl alcohol. I was lucky to have stumbled on to a one time source of t-butyl alcohol only. You'd think that such common and benign chemicals would be easier to come by than, say, CrO3 or mercury (multiple, non-scammy sources exist for both).

[Edited on 5-24-2011 by MagicJigPipe]

Rogeryermaw - 23-5-2011 at 19:28

ya look at my post a few topics down:

http://www.sciencemadness.org/talk/viewthread.php?tid=16365

definitely a scam. they may send your product but it will take months. i finally got mine but not before filing a complaint with the BBB, contacting an attorney and police, and the attorney generals office to get info about the bank they deposit their funds into. i had to pressure the shit out of them to get my order...bastards. by the time it was done, i would have preferred to synth the chem myself than accept it from them but here i am. stuck with it now.

ibuilddinosaursforaliving - 25-5-2011 at 11:09

Quote: Originally posted by Rogeryermaw  
ya look at my post a few topics down:

http://www.sciencemadness.org/talk/viewthread.php?tid=16365

i had to pressure the shit out of them to get my order...bastards. by the time it was done, i would have preferred to synth the chem myself than accept it from them but here i am. stuck with it now.


What specifically did you do when you pressured the shit out of them? My CC is still charged for my t-amyl alcohol order, so if there's an effective way to pester the order through, then I'll do that.

Rogeryermaw - 25-5-2011 at 11:38

well i was very nice about it at first. it wasn't until about three months had passed that i got really angry. i called probably every two weeks to keep track of my order. then as the three month mark came close i just sent email saying i wanted my money back. no answer. then i called repeatedly. according to reseller ratings the only person there that ever issued a refund was chase so i asked for him...of course he was never available. if your order was recent, you should be able to dispute it with your card company. that avenue offered me no resolution as i used a wal-mart money card (we all know that walmart won't do shit for anyone). if sciencelab won't work with you file with the BBB, file a police report with the police in YOUR jurisdiction, obtain a copy of said report and take it to your local prosecutors office.

also you can contact the attorney general's office to try and obtain information about the bank that they do business with to make a fraud complaint. in either case, patience is the key. there is no such thing as speed when it comes to getting results from the system.

after all the bullshit, they put my order in shipping, which, by their policy, means tough shit, you have to accept the order. it was a bit unsatisfying not to break a stick off in their asses but i did at least finally get a hard to obtain chemical.

Magic Muzzlet - 25-5-2011 at 11:40

You could have got 250ml POCl3 from art chemicals for around 120 bucks

Did you not hear about their scamming before ordering? Or did you just take the risk?

Rogeryermaw - 25-5-2011 at 11:47

no i had never heard of their shenanigans before i ordered. it wasn't till much later that i actually looked for reviews on their company that i found out what they pull. art chemicals huh? they are trustworthy?

Magic Muzzlet - 25-5-2011 at 11:50

Yes, they are. I have experience with several items. Of course, some things are extremely overpriced, but the things that are reasonably priced (AlCl3 anyone? POCl3 and other things) are worth buying while you still can!
I don't see them shipping to just anyone for much longer to be honest.
Bt at this time, anyone can order.

Rogeryermaw - 25-5-2011 at 11:53

thank you for the lead. i may have to jump on that while i can. i have had wonderful experience with elementalscientific.net but there are some reagents they do not deal in.

bob800 - 25-5-2011 at 14:43

This was probably just an honest mistake, but they shipped one of our members the wrong chemical, causing his reaction to fail, and refused a refund:

https://www.sciencemadness.org/whisper/viewthread.php?tid=14...

Magpie - 25-5-2011 at 15:15

Do a search on sciencelab.com, this forum. They have a long history of screwing folks. I'm surprised they are still in business.

entropy51 - 25-5-2011 at 15:21

Another reason to use the Search Engine

There's a seven page thread on sciencelab.com dating back four years that should be a red flag to anyone thinking of ordering from these guys.

MagicJigPipe - 25-5-2011 at 21:07

I know I'm just paranoid (and I believe I have a somewhat good reason to be that way) but I would be weary about reporting to the local authorities that I got screwed on a chemical order. Especially if it was something other than t-amyl alcohol (something that appears more nefarious to Johnny LEO which is probably just about everything now that I think about it).

That would be my absolute last resort. The defense of "why would he essentially turn himself in if he was doing something wrong" doesn't hold water in my opinion b/c they think "criminals" are that dumb anyway.

ibuilddinosaursforaliving - 16-6-2011 at 15:33

Just want to report that sciencelab actually delivered tert-amyl alcohol today. It took about 5-6 weeks. I basically called them every day after 2 weeks had passed and spoke mostly to a person named Beth regarding my order. I didn't get rude, but Beth sounded like she knew I wasn't going to quit calling, so I guess that helped expedite the transaction. Maybe I'm one of the rare ones though.

ChemistryGhost - 14-5-2013 at 15:53

How about getting 2-methyl-2-butanol from Fisher scientific?