[limpet chicken]

Hello people.

I am having great difficulty finding anything related to the synthesis of pyridine, there are lots of articles relating to synthesis of substituted pyridine, but none I can find for pyridine itself, could someone point me on the way to a synthesis?

The closest I have managed to find, is a possible preperation, as detailed on sciencemadness.org, regarding possible synthesis via reaction of aqueous HCN and acetylene, and further research online showed a few references to reaction of ammonia and nitriles, assisted by a cobalt  or possibly nickel catalyst.

Has anyone had any experience with this synthesis? more in particular the one using HCN/acetylene, could this perhaps be done in the gas phase even? and the pyridine condensed out via continuous distillation into HCl to form the hydrochloride salt, this synthesis would be a geat deal more practical for me than the nitrile one due to availability of reactants.

What about passing heated HCN and acetylene through a tube over cobalt metal plated on carbon, or the chloride salt on rockwool, then condensing the product (hopefully) into HCl?

Just an afterthought, there was a thread on pyridine synthesis posted over at the Hive, in serious chemistry discussion, before the server went down, does anyone happen to have that thread saved, or perchance know of a Bee that does?

Thanks people.

[AWK]

http://www.hut.fi/Yksikot/Orgaaninen/Opetus/moderni_synteettinen/luennot/Heterocycles1.pdf

[limpet chicken]

Thanks AWK, scooby snack sent your way

[Corvettaholic]

Just out of curiousity... whats pyridine used for?

[limpet chicken]

Pyridine is a nitrogenous base, it can act as a solvent for alkali metal electrolysis, or in the process of demethylating codeine to morphine, just two reactions I can remember offhand, and numerous other organic reaction, also used sometimes as a denaturant for ethanol, as only trace amounts are needed, as it well and truly REEKS of rotting fish.

Pyridine is quite unpleasant though, aside from the stench, it can well and truly do a number on your reproductive system, at least so I have heard.

[Donaldson Tan]

it's one of the nitrogenous base in the DNA

[limpet chicken]

Geodome, the bases in DNA are pyrimidines, not pyridines, the four DNA base pairs are the purines adenine and guanine, and the corresponding pyrimidines, thymine and cytosine.

[Donaldson Tan]

ooo.. spelling.. LOL..