Help Question about Hydrochloric acid and N

[Venessolotic]

Pentobarbitone. (Called Nembutal or Pentobarbital.) 26.7 g of clean metallic sodium are dissolved in 400 g of anhydrous (dry) ethanol. To this, a solution of 100 g of 1-methyl butyl-ethyl malonic ester and 37.2 g of dry urea is added. The mixture is heated for 4 to 6 hours in an autoclave, or refluxed for 20 to 40 hours. The alcohol is then removed by distillation. The residue is dissolved in water and this aqueous solution is acidified with hydrochloric acid. The precipitated product is filtered, washed with cold water, and recrystallized from boiling water. Yield: depends on your ability to exclude H2O from the beginning of the reaction, mp: 127-130°C.

Possible recipe to make N

Warning The following information requires that someone with experience in the field of chemistry verify this information, the following here is a possible prescription to prepare N that is not yet confirmed, so use this information with caution. Equipment Hotplate Stainless steel cup Small...

sanctioned-suicide.net

Above are two recipes for making N. The first recipe states that hydrochloric acid is needed for making N, whilst the second recipe makes no mention of hydrochloric acid.

Is hydrochloric acid an essential ingredient for making N?

 

[Young.Werther]

Looks like it's used as an acidic workup. You could maybe use a different acid instead, but I'm guessing HCl is used because chloride is a relatively straightforward counter ion and you don't have to worry about it doing anything bad to your product. I mean you need a relatively strong acid for workup probably (so something weak like vinegar would likely not cut it). This does not seem like a setup to be done at home. You'd want to get a pure product, and this would be hard in non-controlled environment. Besides, chemicals can be nasty so probably not the best idea (I mean if you don't manage to CTB you're could be left in a painful state). It seems like you don't really know what you're doing so I wouldn't mess with it.

I will say that I didn't actually work through the whole thing so I may be mistaken about parts of it, but this is just my two cents.

 

[Venessolotic]

It seems like you don't really know what you're doing so I wouldn't mess with it.

I don't actually plan on synthesising N, I only asked the question in the original post out of curiosity.