# Wilgerodt Questions, and Calcium Phenylacetate?



## Mikrobiome (May 16, 2022)

The wilgerodt, on its surface, seems like an easily achievable route to phenylacetic acid. While morphololine is generally hard to come by, cyclohexylamine is likely the next best candidate for the job, as it's not too expensive, available, and unwatched.

My question is, when using an amine like cyclohexylamine, is there a risk of formation of hydrogen sulphide?

And is the amine recoverable/reusable?

Also, has anyone had much success with the calcium phenylacetate/calcium acetate route of turning phenylacetic acid into p2p?


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## G.Patton

Mikrobiome said:


> seems like an easily achievable route to phenylacetic acid.



MikrobiomeHello. Do you mean synthesis from Acetophenone?


Mikrobiome said:


> My question is, when using an amine like cyclohexylamine, is there a risk of formation of hydrogen sulphide?


Can you explain what reaction exactly do you mean?


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## G.Patton (May 17, 2022)

In my opinion, the Willgerodt Reaction is a very long way to get p2p, which raise the cost of product.


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## Mikrobiome

Styrene is, imo the best way forward as a non chemist. One can buy gallons of it super cheaply and it is not suspicious at all.

I don't know exactly the name, but one can use ammonia in solution and elemental sulphur, in an autoclave, instead of an amine like cyclohexylamine with sulphur. However, I believe using ammonia produces hydrogen sulphide, which is super dangerous. I want to know if using an amine poses this same risk. 

How do you mean the Wilgerodt is a long way to p2p? It seems straight forward, to a non-chemist. Assuming everything works perfectly, you get phenylacetamide, which is hydrolyzed to phenylacetic acid irrc, then you proceed through countless routes to p2p. 3 steps, in a perfect world


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