Phenylacetone

Phenylacetone, sometimes abbreviated P2P is an organic compound. It is a clear oil with a refractive index of 1.5168. This chemical is used in the manufacture of methamphetamine and amphetamine. Due to the illicit uses in clandestine chemistry, it was made a controlled substance in 1979 in the United States.

Preparation
There are many methods in the scientific literature to prepare phenylacetone, and due to its controlled nature there is crossover into popular literature such as works by Uncle Fester and Alexander Shulgin. Not surprisingly there is also a fair amount of data available on the Internet relating to the preparation of phenylacetone.

A conceptually simple, although low-yielding, example of phenylacetone organic synthesis is the Friedel-Crafts alkylation of benzene with chloroacetone. The reaction is low yielding because the monoalkylation product is activated towards additional substitution at the ortho and para positions.



Phenylacetone can also be produced from many other chemicals. For example, phenylacetic acid is distilled with lead acetate to yield phenylacetone. Another is, benzaldehyde is reacted with nitroethane yielding phenyl-2-nitropropene, which is reduced, usually in the presence of acid, to phenylacetone.