video tutorial Clemmensen reduction of vanillin using zinc amalgam

Name: video tutorial - Clemmensen reduction of vanillin using zinc amalgam
Uploaded: 2025-12-11T09:03:44.113Z
Duration: 12 min 41 s
Description: Well, we salvaged the mercury and here it is. It's very dense and just this tiny drop weighs nearly half a gram....Last time we used plain nitric acid to dissolve it, but it wasn't so successful.

Recovered mercury from a broken thermometer and dissolved it in aqua regia (mixed 68% nitric acid and 36% hydrochloric acid).
The mixture fumed and turned yellow; after dissolution (~10 minutes) the mercury solution was diluted with water and neutralized with saturated sodium carbonate to a near‑neutral pH (~6).
Mercury solution used to amalgamate zinc, creating a zinc–mercury paste for a Clemmensen‑type reduction of aldehydes/ketones, targeting vanillin as the substrate.
Vanillin was dissolved in ethanol (45 mL) and 100 mL concentrated HCl was added; zinc paste was introduced slowly, with controlled heating and stirring for about an hour.
Reaction progress indicated by loss of yellow vanillin color; after addition and heating, the mixture was cooled and filtered. The solids were extracted with dichloromethane (DCM) and the organic phase was dried and concentrated.
The crude product obtained was 9.6 g of creosol isomer (yellow oily liquid) with trace aniline; the aroma was phenolic with woody, smoky, candy-like notes. The product appears air‑sensitive and requires further purification.