Distilling Nitromethane from RC Fuel (To Outsmart Amazon)

[@IstasPumaNevada]

I'm glad you're still going to go through with the synthesis despite someone else doing it first. I don't really care who does it first; I watch the channels I watch because I like the way the creators present their work.

[@redneckhippiefreak]

LOL Back in the height of the Post 9/11 paranoia, I was playing with my RC Car and forgot to wash my hands before I packed my bags for a trip across country. When they swabbed my bag and Nitro showed up the red light went on and the fences fell locking about 150 people in the security center. .. XD After about 20 minutes of dealing with the 12 armed TSA agents stripping me and swabbing my entire breadth of possessions and clothing, They all had a laugh... Except I was violated for simply playing with a toy. 8/

[@user-xj8wy4uu1q]

Wow

[@DarkAttack14]

Kinda ironic too because at the time they could only test for nitrogen containing explosives.. So if you were playing with TATP they wouldn't have known/cared

[@redneckhippiefreak]

@@DarkAttack14 Humm.. Interesting..Aside from Ampho and TNT, I am ignorant of explosives. .

[@J.C...]

Oddly enough, many guys that drag race with a methanol-burning engine use a methanol/nitro mix from VP lol

[@blindsniper35]

The stuff they use for top fuel is a much higher percentage of nitromethane. That stuff maxes out at 90% nitromethane. Although I believe you can choose a lower percentage if you wish. It almost certainly does not contain oil because it's not a two stroke.

[@turkeyboyjh1]

@@blindsniper35 90/10 nitro is usually mixed with a small amount of oil to help lubricate the massive mechanical fuel pump on top fuel motors

[@creatorsfreedom6734]

guess we can not use the term Drag anymore

[@pastaalalamborghini]

@@blindsniper35 VP 50/50 is 50% methanol and 50% nitro. Big tire street/grudge/no prep guys run it, some non fuel limited classes run it

[@blindsniper35]

@@turkeyboyjh1 didn't realize they ran any oil. But it makes sense to me since the amount of fuel they're going to be flowing through those mechanical fuel pumps.

[@mattsonn]

The blue color of the fuel helps with cooling (blue = cold)

[@nhragold1922]

Vp sells straight up nitro by the drum. M3 is alcohol with a small amount of nitro. Just go to an NHRA event and you can buy all sorts of fuel.

[@All_Science]

Nice Job! I did this distillation with 1 gallon of 50% nitro fuel made for RC boats. Unfortunately I dropped my thermometer into the 1l flask and about 500ml of fuel soaked into my mantle :( Also the oil smells extremely bad when you get it hot so I recommend distilling in smaller batches and removing the oil each time you add fresh fuel. I got around 250ml of nitromethane which is definitely not a 100% yeild. I assume that you will be doing a Henry reaction with the nitromethane? I've done them and they're honestly some of my favourite reactions (except for the cleaning part). For substituted benzaldehydes I used GAA, nitromethane and ethonalamine and ended up with yields around 80-90%. Good luck on your synthesis!

[@LabCoatz_Science]

Thanks! And yeah, I'll be using this in a Henry reaction to make 3,4-dihydroxynitrostyrene, which will be reduced with Pd/C to dopamine. I've ran the reaction before using protocatechuic aldehyde in methanol with ethanolamine, and it seems to work great! GAA/ammonium acetate was recommended, but I'd need to vacuum distill off the GAA, which doesn't seem feasible atm

[@All_Science]

​​​@@LabCoatz_Sciencehere's my notes for the Henry reaction. It might be useful to you. "13.7g substituted benzaldehyde, 36ml GAA, 9g nitromethane, 6g ethanolamine were added to a 100ml flask and heated at 60C for 40min. The flask was allowed to cool to room temp and 100ml of water was added and the mixture was stirred for several minutes and placed in the freezer. After filtering, the material was recrystallized from methanol 15ml/g. The final yeild is 9.8g of bright yellow crystals of nitrostyrene." The 15ml/g number isn't actually correct. Also, I used a sodium borohydride and copper chloride reduction for reducing the nitrostyrene.

[@LabCoatz_Science]

@@All_Science I think I looked into using borohydride, but it mostly seemed to produce oxides and other stuff instead of cleanly reducing the nitro and double bond. I would try GAA, but then I'd need to buy some and if it fails to precipitate, I'd need to redo my aldehyde synth. Maybe I will though... the yield might be better, as some people suggest!

[@All_Science]

​@@LabCoatz_ScienceI've done the Henery reaction with just ammonium acetate and nitromethane and could never get yields above 60%

[@johndoe528]

Torco fuels also sells it by the gallon from their website (under the R/C fuels section), just to throw another web supplier out there.

[@larrytillick952]

I have to agree with those below. You can order Nitro (one gallon and 5 gallon cans) from your local auto parts place or performance auto parts house. The purity is reasonably high.

[@LabCoatz_Science]

While locating an auto store that sells nitro could be a bit of a hassle, I do agree that simply buying it would be easier. The Hyperfuels website sells it for a decent price, and if I had know about them sooner, I would've just bought from them. However, this still seems like a useful process for people living in areas where nitromethane is restricted, and since there was some debate on Science Madness about how feasible this route would be, I decided to give it a go and post the results!

[@TheOneAndOnlyNeuromod]

I love the distillation here. It’s too bad dopamine is too polar to cross the blood-brain barrier and reach the mesolimbic brain. If only we had something structurally similar, and more nonpolar that could do the trick. Oh yeah - AlphaMethylPHenylEThylAMINE. (The casing being intentional - wink wink) :-)

[@generalmarkmilleyisbenedic8895]

So what your saying is that i need to take amphetamines to be happy 😎

[@jdove6883]

Keeping it real Bro. I admire that.

[@Hexane630]

You deserve more subscribers!!

[@NicksGotBeef]

Really interesting… looking forward to your dopamine synthesis.

[@marconiandcheese7258]

Super cool video! I'm so glad I discovered your channel!

[@kentherapy7022]

Quality of tutorial is 10x importantly than who do it first attempt or else attempt.

[@artratengo]

Dope vid, excited for the upcoming dopamine synthesis, subscribed )

[@copperchopper4626]

nice work man only if nitromethane was common here

[@garbagesoupcan]

Anything with the tagline "to outsmart Amazon" gets my click, and i think in watching this I've Found a new hobby: RC cars! Now to fit a nitro powertrain in a hot wheels🤣🤣

[@kartracer5g229]

It's blue because many companies use that as a way to let you see what fuel you have by looking and another reason is because fuel mixed with castor or bean oil is used in 2 stroke engine which most rc engines are and it makes it a sure way to know that you aren't putting straight unmixed fuel into a 2 stroke engine and end up melting it down

[@jamesrozell6467]

If you have a drag strip nearby they will have nitro.

[@kaboom4679]

Can we get Bezos in a submersible ? FYI VP sells a 50% NM product and 99.9% stuff is available as well , just not at Bezos The Clown's Circus Tent and Outhouse . Try a local speed shop, just know they are told to be on the lookout for " non racing types " looking for NM . That's been a thing for a long time . How about trying to break the azeotrope after this current project ?

[@tonydetwiler2624]

Ironically I love running these little nitro RC cars and glow engines

[@BVN-TEXAS]

Hey you can order it from a place here in Houston called Hyperfuels. I use them for my 110LL fuels.

[@jaimeortega4940]

Good job! 👍👍

[@en2oh]

not sure if this has been mentioned before, but you really can't completely separate an azeotrope by simple distillation. IIRC, you could make a ternary azeotrope, but simple distillation is going to leave you with that 9% methanol.

[@CDCI3]

I mean, that's kind of the definition. Can't separate by fractional distillation, either.

[@CDCI3]

You can purify the nitromethane here since it is the higher boiling of the two and present in a higher percentage than the azeotrope % nitromethane. That 9% means 9% nitromethane at azeotrope, not 9% methanol. Once you've distilled off all the methanol (technically 91:9 MeOH/MeNO3), the methanol is completely gone and there's leftover nitromethane.

[@AmaroqStarwind]

You use nitromethane to make dopamine?! O.o Also, making a dopamine antagonist would be interesting. I could actually use some of that... For research purposes.

[@en2oh]

ah... the blood brain barrier is going to make any sort of reward effect a bit tough

[@user255]

You can get dopamine antagonists from pharmacy. They are commonly used in low dose to treat long term insomnia.

[@alexrogers777]

@@user255using an antipsychotic (dopamine antagonist) for insomnia is a pretty bad idea

[@user255]

@@alexrogers777 Why it would be bad idea? It is very common practice and backed up by multiple studies.

[@alexrogers777]

@@user255 its a bad idea because you're risking something really bad & permenant like tardive dyskinesia. Use of antipsychotics for sleep might be common but I doubt theres really that many studies supporting that use. They only make you sleepy because they have H2 antagonism, which you can get from regular old benedryl

[@Fk8td]

You could have bought 5 gallon VP 50/50 nitro but that’s a large amount.

[@DJChesley]

Great video! But a question, since you said it wasn't too tightly controlled in the United States can't you just buy liters of it from a seller that's not amazon?

[@LabCoatz_Science]

I could have, but I filmed this back in July/August and didn't know about sellers like Hyperfuels at the time. And since there was some debate on the science forums about if this would be feasible, I decided to give it a shot for the people who don't have access to pure nitromethane.

[@tracycurtright2671]

I personally know a few top fuel racers and since 9/11 the rules on obtaining the quantities of pure nitro that they use have changed. Some racers have even been visited by the Department of Homeland security to verify how much nitro the have, how they're storing it and the security of their facilities

[@2000freefuel]

you also could have bubbled Nitrogen Dioxide into Sunoco E85.

[@Wanderingviewer]

What safety precautions should you take when distilling and explosive and poison substance?

[@chanheosican6636]

That very cool making dopamine. Nitromethane distillation. Look foward to a route of making dopamine.

[@CL-yp1bs]

Methamphetamine has good bioavailability and high affinity to dopamine receptors in the brain I don’t think ingesting dopamine will do anything, will it?

[@LabCoatz_Science]

Nope, it just causes high blood pressure if given intravenously (which is how it is used in the medical field).

[@poolmotorrepairguyFL]

The Florida pool pump motor repair guy 32750 approved ! that was good info & see LabCoatz

[@janisreinberger7724]

I've heard several times that seperating the nitromethane from the mixture isn't necessary for the Henry reaction to work. Would be interesting if you could qualitatively test that out if you have some aldehyde left over after the main synth. Would save a lot of work and all the nitro stuck in the azeotrope. Either way, really looking forward to the next video :)

[@LabCoatz_Science]

Believe me, if I could just use the RC fuel directly, I would! But sadly, I already tried that, and the result was a gooey red tar. Removing the oily impurities definitely helped, and with a more concentrated nitromethane, I can crash out the product much more easily. However, it is worth noting that the raw reaction mix shouldn't be directly reduced to dopamine: the tar and impurities leftover from the Henry reaction (mostly polymerized nitrostyrenes) cause the dopamine to fairly dirty.

[@CDCI3]

Wonder if you could do some liquid/liquid extraction instead of distillation. Like dump in some hexane equivalent and take the bottom layer.

[@maxiliarydendrite8926]

@@LabCoatz_Sciencecan you freeze the oil and filter it out ?

[@HexOptimal]

"look mah, pure dope!" lol

[@THYZOID]

Great job!

[@WeebRemover4500]

reduction into amine, then oxidation back into nitro, methyl nitrite might be possible to isomerize also

[@jackmclane1826]

Yeah... I still have a couple of canisters of nearly pure nitro at home. Like 90%. I used to mix my own rc fuel back then. It was much cheaper and my RC hobby guzzled the stuff.

[@Plancksized]

When is the dopamine video coming? I’m replicating pyrotechnical’s procedure this week and I want to see how you do it!

[@LabCoatz_Science]

Sadly, that video probably won't be coming. My pathway was very similar to Pyrotechnical's, but it actually followed a published procedure. It involved reacting protocatechuic aldehyde with nitromethane to get 3,4-dihydroxy-b-nitrostyrene (Henry reaction), which would be dissolved in ethanol/HCl and reduced with 10% Pd/C under hydrogen to get dopamine HCl. However, the isolating the nitrostyrene proved to be essentially impossible, since catechols (benzene rings with two hydroxyl groups next to each other) tend to be super air-sensitive and unstable. I could never crystallize it, no matter how I performed the Henry reaction. I tried reducing with Pd/C, which seemed to work, but I could never get the HCl salt out of the tar...freebasing wasn't an option either, since dopamine freebase rapidly polymerizes. Overall, it was one giant mess and after going through nearly a half-pound of precursor, I'm pretty much burnt out.

[@akakikalatozoshvili762]

For safety, could I use argon during distilation nitromethane?

[@Auroral_Anomaly]

*Clenches stomach in anger*

[@-a13x-75]

2:09 That’s a simple distillation setup. Fractionating columns are to be used vertically. You used a fractionating column as a condenser

[@LabCoatz_Science]

That is actually an Allihn condenser, the fractionating column is the vertical tube that you can see me connecting it to via the distillation adapter.

[@-a13x-75]

I’m used to industrial fractional distillation which is never made of glass so I thought that was just the neck of the round bottom. My bad

[@AManChoosesASlaveObeys]

not so much work to make an explosive

[@Esterified80]

Electrolysis of carboxylate salts and nitrates also gives nitro compounds?

[@geekswithfeet9137]

so a big reason that it's not sold pure is because in the pure form it has been known to hydraulically det

[@TheExplosiveGuy]

It takes a _serious_ shock to set off by itself, even when mixed with a sensitizer it still requires a decently strong blasting cap to detonate, and while there is a record of hydraulic shock detonating nitromethane at large scales (a tanker truck), it happens so rarely as to be negligible. The reason it is not commonly sold by amazon or ebay is its use in explosives, they don't want to be held liable for selling explosive material, kind of like how they stopped selling ammonium nitrate and other oxidizers. Pure nitro is readily available online without requiring paperwork for 30 gallons or less, I got a gallon of it last year from Torco Race Fuels for about $120.

[@geekswithfeet9137]

@@TheExplosiveGuy I feel like you're explaining to me what i already suggested I was aware of without being too wordy. I'm well aware of the parameters, the incident i referred to in the one you reference with the tanker. Also not saying you 'cant' buy it pure, but every time i've tried, even if it says 100 or 99.9 on the bottle, it has 5% methanol in it as a desensitizer. I would challenge you to check yourself.

[@AntimatePcCustom]

So this is why people fly and drive rc nitromethane models. They are filled with dopamine as a by product 😎

[@hondahirny]

The dopamine is synthesized in your nostrils when you smell that burned nitro and oil 😂 Used to race semi-indoor and the sound and smell of RC car exhaust was awesome. It’s like that scene in Apocalypse Now… “You smell that!? That’s napalm, son. I love the smell of napalm in the morning. It smells like… victory.” 😂😂😂

[@mattharvey8712]

Bravo........ok.....urine......what is the best way to increase nitrate level .........aged in bucket .....with soil and wood chips.......can u add anything more..........ammonia.......cheers

[@chemistryofquestionablequa6252]

Chicken and/or rabbit droppings are the highest yielding for nitrates by that route. Also add leaves and lawn clippings.

[@user-wv9nx5mo1p]

,Hello, what are the ingredients?

[@Matoro342]

So... will you be mailing any fan samples of that dopamine?

[@LabCoatz_Science]

I might...

[@ardennielsen3761]

methane gas bubbled thru nitric acid that has methanol and ethanol in it. 😐 its a polarized nitrated gas that is semi soluble in alcohols. nitropropane is the same thing, helps engines start up as the compression cycle of 120-180psi from 0psi is enough to thermally crack the nitrate off creating a small heat increase before the spark, pulmonary emulation of dieseling without igniting what's around it. but whatever

[@slyfoxchemistry]

Amazing job well done how are you

[@BearValleyPyro]

I like nitromethane 😊

[@NerdlabsSci]

get rekt amazon

[@kevo8137]

Has anything ever been distilled and the remaining stuff becomes dangerous and explodes?

[@LabCoatz_Science]

If you mean anything like this (nitromethane), than no, not to my knowledge. However, certain chemicals like diethyl ether or THF can build up explosive peroxides that may concentrate and subsequently detonate during distillation.

[@kevo8137]

@@LabCoatz_Science interesting stuff!

[@loranarinich8349]

Why did you jump straight to 101 b.p. of nitromethane. You was meant to distill methanol 64 degrees and everything beyond the point of nitromethane. And then try to distill pure nitromethane in case any of the oil exceed the b.p of 101

[@LabCoatz_Science]

I didn't jump straight to 101C, the temperature reached that point naturally after most of the methanol boiled off. And I redistill it to isolate the mostly-pure nitromethane from leftover methanol and any oil that came over.

[@josephastier7421]

What can dopamine be used for outside of a brain?

[@CDCI3]

0:45 What's the solution? A solution!

[@doperider85]

Wal-Mart supposedly sells 99.9% nitromethane on their website

[@LabCoatz_Science]

Heyyy, that's pretty good! Screw Amazon, Walmart's where it's at, lol.

[@CDCI3]

0:16 If vanillin becomes the next safrole because of that mfing video, I'm going to be so annoyed and yet unsurprised.

[@JakeDogg-RIP]

If u don’t set things on fire then ur not really doing chemistry! 👌🍻

[@alcyonecrucis]

NITROOOO!!!

[@brandonross6083]

I got 80/20 nitro/meoh off Amazon. It was easy to find. Why do through all this?

[@LabCoatz_Science]

I've only ever seen 66% on Amazon, could you provide a link (or maybe just the listing title, since KZbin likes to delete comments with links)? I went with this stuff because of the price: it was only $25, while the 66% was $100 and only sold by the gallon. I distilled it mostly for the sake of seeing if separating the nitromethane was achievable, since some people on Science Madness were debating that a while ago. But yeah, if you just want nitromethane, I would recommend buying a liter of the 99.9% stuff from Hyperfuels for $35.

[@glastornjet73]

You do realize you can buy a 5 gallon bucket of nitromethane from VP racing fuel from just about any VP racing fuel distributor

[@placeholerwav]

I think it's more fun this way

[@Sp1n022]

are you gonna chase 2024? i would love to watch

[@LabCoatz_Science]

Tornado chase? Maybe, it'll depend on how things go with college as well as some of the other people involved...but I certainly hope to!

[@MichaelLeeOne]

Believe it or not. Walmart does sell pure nitromethane.

[@kwhp1507]

I have the MM700 and really don’t like it because of the screen. It has a horrible viewing angle.

[@CharlesVanNoland]

I can tell you why it's blue. When they are synthesizing their mixture there was some swamp gas from a weather balloon that's trapped in a thermal pocket reflecting the light from Venus. That's what gives it the blue tint.

[@BearValleyPyro]

Could you do this with a retort ?

[@LabCoatz_Science]

Probably, but I don't know why someone would want to. A proper distillation setup is much easier to buy and it works a lot better.

[@BearValleyPyro]

@@LabCoatz_Science It's just all I have to distill. I'll try it in the future with a proper setup.

[@1marcelfilms]

Can you put the dopamine into pills?

[@LabCoatz_Science]

Not really, the only good way to get it into your body is intravenously, and the results probably aren't what you think. Sadly, it just causes high blood pressure (the HCl salt is frequently used for this purpose), not ultimate bliss, so you can't get high off pure dopamine.

[@sladoid]

cool

[@Truggahneer]

RC Fuel is too expensive for science! 😅

[@railgap]

Now all you need is some ammonium nitrate... O_O

[@WastedElephant]

I was expecting a big of smoke *spontaneously bursts into flame*

[@Hellseeker1]

So your saying Nitro Cars run on liquid happiness

[@alext6933]

Please send me some happiness juice I really need it

[@yoctoflop]

Dopamine is more of a motivational juice. If you want happiness juice then serotonin might be a good place to look...

[@user255]

@@yoctoflop Neither of them are "happiness juice", nor they cross blood brain barrier. Take some SSRI and your serotonin levels get up almost instantly. Zero effect on mood, until *maybe* after few weeks, which seems to be caused by new synaptic connections, instead of serotonin per se.

[@JoseRamirez-xs5lq]

Kind of made your dopamine levels go down:(

[@horsthorstmann2480]

Just a nitrated cow fart 🫣

[@magicbox9371]

VP is available at the pump in some union76 gas stations. I don’t understand what you say but I do know what you are doing. Oddly the comments are not typical. I would enjoy a discord round table of intelligent people. Not the typical discussion among the uninformed. Like….. one time while discussing painting automobiles this fool said to me….thats what Roy said…my opinions were baseed on experience while his were based on what he was told. I ended all debate by saying you are as smart as a parot and I am a painter. The guy hit me. Violence is how ignorant people win arguments. I don’t fight or even argue. I will teach you that I am right.

[@ZeL-iq5sf]

Nice i will totally definitely not do this......

[@evanmeneilley3228]

VP racing is not low grade smh

[@J.C...]

Buy racing fuel 🤷