Many companies will write whatever you want them to on the customs declaration form.
Is this something that would require a bribe, or just append it to the "Additional comments" section? I'm hesitant to order Chinese, because I've seen many Chinese companies that purportedly sell some of the very complex and novel organometallics that my lab designs, and I doubt their honesty. Is it reliable enough for something like pure honey, or should I go ahead and get honey oil and refine it myself?
I actually have a few questions, hopefully Mr. Duck will bestow some wisdom as his comments on Brightstar/Drool's syntheses were what prompted me to do some more digging around.
1. In Strike's Total Synthesis II (1999) she talks about a modified Wacker procedure that skips the well-loved Al/Hg amalgam:
Strike said:
The method is basically an application of the Wacker oxidation except the the catalyst used is palladium acetate, the solvent is acetic acid or t-Bu alcohol and the oxygen source is the previously suggested hydrogen peroxide.
This method avoids the need for cupric chloride, so it'd be possible to reclaim the unhalogenated solvents, which is attractive. Also, the safrole->ketone reaction rate was on the magnitude of around a hundred grams of starting material per hour. If you have a copy of the text, it's around page 80...Thoughts on this method? If needed I can post the full rxn details.
2. What are the advantages/disadvantages of sodium iodide versus sodium metabisulfite for the purification of MDP-2P? Vogel does mention in his 5th edition that sodium iodide outperforms the bisulfite, but doesn't describe why. Is this just lab/time convenience?
3. In y'all's opinion, is fractional distillation ever really necessary in an MDMA synthesis? It seems like vacuum is just fine if you plan your procedure well, but if it wouldn't hurt...