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Is there a book that teaches you how to synthesize various chemicals?

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ultimatebob said:
Sure, but you know that all the cool chemicals that you need to make gunpowder or crystal meth aren't going to be in there. Spoil sports.
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Need to upgrade to the other kit for that.

iu


Fun for the whole family!
 
DigDog said:
Salty, im not sure anyone here has explained it in play words, so i will.

Organic chemistry is the single hardest disciplie that our species knows. Even today we are still stumbling in darkness when it comes to chemistry.
The idea that you can "buy a book" and do any of it without YEARS of extremely tedious study is laughable.

Just as an example, i had a paper that "here is how you make ecstasy for dummies" and i could not understand any of it. Not the terms of the procedures, not the names of the compounds, not the names of the tools, or any of the measurements involved short of kilos and such.

No, you cannot teach yourself chemistry.
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Dude, with all due respect, what the HELL are you talking about? A 1.7 second google search gives a simple example:

[To make potassium nitrate], just mix 40 grams of ammonium nitrate with 100mL of water and stir until dissolved. Filter the mixture directly into 37 grams of potassium chloride. Gently heat until completely dissolved, do not boil. Cool the mixture to 0 Celsius in the freezer or on an ice bath. Filter the crystals and dry them. Now you have potassium nitrate.

Do you see that? SEE THAT? It told me the steps to take two different substances (A and B), mix them in water, heat, cool, filter, and.... POOF, there is the third substance (C), the one you wanted to synthesize. Notice how I don't have to know JACK SHIT about organic chemistry to follow the instructions? I'm asking if there is a book that has lots of different instructions like this for lots of different chemicals, it is that simple. I can't imagine something like that is not out there...

Some of you guys are so full of yourselves you actually believe your own stupidity LOL....

Thank you, though.
 
Captante said:
You are talking about having an actual understanding of what you are doing while the OP is talking about following a recipe.

Not the same thing at all. 😉
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While this dude gets most everything wrong, every once in awhile he stumbles into something right. As he did above ^^^^. But don't worry, within 30 seconds he'll get right back up and start being wrong over and over again LOL.
 
SaltyNuts said:
While this dude gets most everything wrong, every once in awhile he stumbles into something right. As he did above ^^^^. But don't worry, within 30 seconds he'll get right back up and start being wrong over and over again LOL.
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So you're NOT a dummy? 😉

(could have fooled me)
 
DigDog said:
Salty, im not sure anyone here has explained it in play words, so i will.

Organic chemistry is the single hardest disciplie that our species knows. Even today we are still stumbling in darkness when it comes to chemistry.
The idea that you can "buy a book" and do any of it without YEARS of extremely tedious study is laughable.

Just as an example, i had a paper that "here is how you make ecstasy for dummies" and i could not understand any of it. Not the terms of the procedures, not the names of the compounds, not the names of the tools, or any of the measurements involved short of kilos and such.

No, you cannot teach yourself chemistry.
Click to expand...
To be fair, yes it is hard. But if I can do it, a trained monkey could do it.

(A monkey with exceptional glass blowing skills)
 
SaltyNuts said:
Dude, with all due respect, what the HELL are you talking about? A 1.7 second google search gives a simple example:

[To make potassium nitrate], just mix 40 grams of ammonium nitrate with 100mL of water and stir until dissolved. Filter the mixture directly into 37 grams of potassium chloride. Gently heat until completely dissolved, do not boil. Cool the mixture to 0 Celsius in the freezer or on an ice bath. Filter the crystals and dry them. Now you have potassium nitrate.

Do you see that? SEE THAT? It told me the steps to take two different substances (A and B), mix them in water, heat, cool, filter, and.... POOF, there is the third substance (C), the one you wanted to synthesize. Notice how I don't have to know JACK SHIT about organic chemistry to follow the instructions? I'm asking if there is a book that has lots of different instructions like this for lots of different chemicals, it is that simple. I can't imagine something like that is not out there...

Some of you guys are so full of yourselves you actually believe your own stupidity LOL....

Thank you, though.
Click to expand...
In the strictest sense I guess this qualifies as chemistry in that you're doing an exchange reaction, but this is like 1st day of junior high type stuff.

I do however, appreciate that fact that you've upped the ante by proposing a substrate that is potentially highly explosive. Always good to sharpen one's focus 😂
 
Also filtration is another basic technique. Use coffee filters.

Then move on to shit like melting point determination, then recrsytallization, and distillation if you have access to the kit and a good fire extinguisher.

Follow that up with natural product isolation, should be able to find any number of good preps for that. Eugenol is a fun one we used to teach in lab.
 
SaltyNuts said:
Seems like I remember seeing something like this in the past, but Google is rough on me. Like an encyclopedia of chemicals, and how to synthesize them, via this chemical reaction to get from A to B, then do this other chemical reaction to get from B to C, then this final chemical reaction and POOF, you get D, which is the chemical you wanted to end up with.
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ag5fj.jpg




stares in motherfucker
 
SaltyNuts said:
Thanks uclalabrat for being one of the few non-trolls on the thread. But I think I was not clear in my OP. I'm not trying to build a watch. I just want to know what freaking time it is. In other words, I'm not trying to figure out how I can figure out how to synthesize chemicals. I just want a book where other smart people have figured that out and tell you the steps to do it. Like a cookbook for chemicals. And not the Anarchists cookbook. A real one that doesn't focus on domestic terrorism and explosives LOL.

Does such a beast exist?

Thank you.
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The fact is that you have no idea what you are asking, and when given the answer (I count at least...5 times so far in this thread), you won't be able to understand it or do anything with that information, because you are fundamentally incapable of reading these books.


....and it's not just "a recipe in a book." This takes years of gained, practical knowledge and experience. There is a 95% chance that you would kill yourself in the process.
 
DigDog said:
Salty, im not sure anyone here has explained it in play words, so i will.

Organic chemistry is the single hardest disciplie that our species knows. Even today we are still stumbling in darkness when it comes to chemistry.
The idea that you can "buy a book" and do any of it without YEARS of extremely tedious study is laughable.

Just as an example, i had a paper that "here is how you make ecstasy for dummies" and i could not understand any of it. Not the terms of the procedures, not the names of the compounds, not the names of the tools, or any of the measurements involved short of kilos and such.

No, you cannot teach yourself chemistry.
Click to expand...

Nah, we aren't at all in the darkness when it comes to chemistry. This knowledge doesn't really change all that much over the last...several decades. I promise you: the textbook you owned 20 years ago, either P-Chem or even Orgo, are still very relevant today. Very, very little has changed--because the major processes by which compounds are produced remain mostly unchanged.

If you want something that is up to date for only 2-3 years at a time, look into biochemistry or molecular biology. Less than 1 year? Then genomics is where you want to spend the rest of your days utterly perplexed.
 
SaltyNuts said:
Dude, with all due respect, what the HELL are you talking about? A 1.7 second google search gives a simple example:

[To make potassium nitrate], just mix 40 grams of ammonium nitrate with 100mL of water and stir until dissolved. Filter the mixture directly into 37 grams of potassium chloride. Gently heat until completely dissolved, do not boil. Cool the mixture to 0 Celsius in the freezer or on an ice bath. Filter the crystals and dry them. Now you have potassium nitrate.

Do you see that? SEE THAT? It told me the steps to take two different substances (A and B), mix them in water, heat, cool, filter, and.... POOF, there is the third substance (C), the one you wanted to synthesize. Notice how I don't have to know JACK SHIT about organic chemistry to follow the instructions? I'm asking if there is a book that has lots of different instructions like this for lots of different chemicals, it is that simple. I can't imagine something like that is not out there...

Some of you guys are so full of yourselves you actually believe your own stupidity LOL....

Thank you, though.
Click to expand...

Be sure and do this in your kitchen, by the way. I promise you that the microwave vent above your stove is just as effective as a chemical fume hood.
 
There are sites, like Reaxys, that can give you the synthesis steps. However, with your, shall we say, limited knowledge of chemistry, it's like someone showing you a picture of a 5-star chef's masterpiece and giving you the recipe, and then telling you to make exactly that, except you also get the added bonus that many of the ingredients can kill you.

People that know nothing about chemistry should probably not be venturing into the laboratory aspects of the subject without proper supervision, training, and equipment, unless the extent of your exploration is to mix baking soda and vinegar for your paper mache volcano.

But this thread, combined with your other thread about bulk potassium nitrate, suggests that some guys with badges and suits might be paying you a visit in your near future.
 
Brainonska511 said:
There are sites, like Reaxys, that can give you the synthesis steps. However, with your, shall we say, limited knowledge of chemistry, it's like someone showing you a picture of a 5-star chef's masterpiece and giving you the recipe, and then telling you to make exactly that, except you also get the added bonus that many of the ingredients can kill you.

People that know nothing about chemistry should probably not be venturing into the laboratory aspects of the subject without proper supervision, training, and equipment, unless the extent of your exploration is to mix baking soda and vinegar for your paper mache volcano.

But this thread, combined with your other thread about bulk potassium nitrate, suggests that some guys with badges and suits might be paying you a visit in your near future.
Click to expand...
I was reading pihkal again last night cause I haven't perused it in years, and 1) it's an awesome read as just a stand-alone story and 2) reading some of the preps in there is hilarious.

"Add allyl bromide with k-carb in ethanol and reflux. Quench in water. Heat mix to 260 deg. C. Take mix and add in tetranitromethane (Holy WTF batman!)"

Allyl bromide. Super fucking hot. Tetranitromethane. What could go wrong?

The allyl bromide is a lachrymator so you blind yourself, then give yourself cancer, and blow everything up. Circle of life right there. Or circle of physics.
 
uclaLabrat said:
I was reading pihkal again last night cause I haven't perused it in years, and 1) it's an awesome read as just a stand-alone story and 2) reading some of the preps in there is hilarious.

"Add allyl bromide with k-carb in ethanol and reflux. Quench in water. Heat mix to 260 deg. C. Take mix and add in tetranitromethane (Holy WTF batman!)"

Allyl bromide. Super fucking hot. Tetranitromethane. What could go wrong?

The allyl bromide is a lachrymator so you blind yourself, then give yourself cancer, and blow everything up. Circle of life right there. Or circle of physics.
Click to expand...
Meanwhile, many of those words mean nothing to me (beyond danger - read SDS and wear safety equipment). I'm the type of chemist that knows almost nothing about synthesis, beyond peptide and protein making, thanks to my exclusive focus on biophysical chemistry during my PhD.
 
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