I found this receipe on Uncle Fester book
Amphetamine synthesis via the Leuckart reaction
The magic in the reaction is to put the phenylacetone and the formamide together a couple of
days before doing the reaction.
I part phenyl acetone and 2 parts fonnamide must stand at room temperature at least 24 hours or
more. I think one week is best. It should be shaken twice a day or more. I believe the formamide is
slowly reacting with the phenyl acetone, so the longer it stands, the better!
Maybe if the temperature is higher, it reacts faster. Some people leave it for only a day, but if
you have the time, why not let it stand for one or two weeks?
Just before I got arrested, I was measuring the pH of the mixture, and I believe that it changes
every day. With a little patience, you should be able to figure out the best length of time to let it
stand.
Warning: NEVER put the formic acid with the mixture. It will ruin everything, and you will
have to start all over.
So now you have waited for a week, and you're ready to go for it. Put your mixture in a glass
flask with boiling chips. You should use as many as possible, because you need small bubbles.
This is very important! ! With a condenser on top for refluxing, the water inside the condenser must
not be very cold, because the ammonia will block the hole in the condenser, so 30° C is a good
temperature for it. You can even let all the water out, if you don't mind the smell of ammonia.
Just before you start, you take a little bit of fonnic acid and add it to the mixture. You only
need a little bit; for instance, for a 3-liter mixture, add Scc. More won't do any hann. If you put in
too much, just heat the flask without the condenser until the temperature has gone up to 1 60- 1 65°
C, and put the condenser back on.
Now you must raise the temperature to 1 80° C, and sometimes a little bit higher, depending
on the quality of your formamide. Here they use industrial grade. I've never had any problems, as
long as it's clean.
Let the mixture ret1ux for one hour after it has reached the desired temperature. The mixture
will change from light yellow to dark yellow. If it starts to darken, then your temperature is too
high.
After one hour, let it cool down, or when it is a small batch, take a sep funnel tIlled with
water and mix it with your batch. Don't use any lye at this stage.
Now take out the oil and mix it with twice the amount of hydrochloric acid. Let it reflux for
one hour.
Now you have to separate this with lye. The best thing to do is to first let it cool down, but if
it's a small batch and a big sep funnel, you can take the risk. Also, very good shaking is needed
here.
Take the oily layer and start to distill it under maximum vacuum.
Take the distilled product and mix this with twice the amount of alcohol, methanol, acetone,
or whatever you think is best. Now take 20% H2S04 and add this slowly until the p H is 7 . If you
added too much H2S04, just bring the pH back with some lye.
Now filter out the product and let it dry. Big batches take a long time to dry, so people here
put them in a centrifuge. Take a big bedsheet, put your batch in there, and let it spin. (Be careful
with sparks and such')
time.
Instead of formamide, you can also use ammonium fonnate. You don't need formic acid here.
I ' m now trying to do the reaction with only ammonia, but I ' m still working on that one.
If you have any questions, j ust write me and ask. Keep up the good work and have a good
