DIETHYLAMINE FROM BUG SPRAY! (Patreon)

Previously, I mentioned that I needed diethylamine to make novocaine, and alluded to the fact that it could be made from bug spray. Well, I'm pleased to say that the synthesis went flawlessly, and worked with completely OTC unrefined chemicals!

At it's core, this is just a basic hydrolysis of DEET (sold 98% pure in Repel 100 bug spray) using sodium hydroxide. A high-boiling solvent is required for best results, so I used raw ethylene glycol antifreeze. The composition was: 350mL antifreeze, 50mL water, 80g crystal lye drain cleaner (sodium hydroxide), and 118mL DEET bug spray. This was distilled over the course of 5-6 hours into a 250mL flask containing 50mL of 37% HCl, which helped trap the diethylamine as its non-volatile hydrochloride salt. This salt was freebased with another 25g of crystal lye and distilled to give 37.5g of dry diethylamine. This correlates to a yield of 85% based on DEET...not bad!

Hopefully I'll be able to react some of this with my 2-chloroethanol tomorrow, and then move on to making novocaine! I did modify the procedure slightly, after testing some things. To get the best yield, I plan to convert my PABA to p-aminobenzoyl chloride with thionyl chloride, which should react much more readily with the DEAE I get from diethylamine + 2-chloroethanol.

Also, I will be publishing the diacetyl popcorn video tomorrow, as the sponsor demands. So unfortunately, there won't be pre-release access for this one.