Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Preparation of Citrazinic Acid

Athiril - 1-9-2011 at 07:16

I recently got reminded I wanted some citrazinic acid to try in some of my film developers.

While googling I found a thread (also on these forums) with a post by Nicodem here http://www.sciencemadness.org/talk/viewthread.php?tid=8378

Stating: "You can make trialkyl citrates, di(m)ethyl acetone dicarboxylate, aconitic acid anhydride, citrazinic acid and its N-alkyl derivatives and so on..."


In reference to what one can do with citric acid.


What is the preparation method of citrazinic acid using citric acid?

Nicodem - 1-9-2011 at 07:46

Follow your link above and read the thread (sometimes the most obvious think to do is also the wisest).

Athiril - 1-9-2011 at 09:00

Oh, sorry! I didn't see there were more pages as they were small numbers on the bottom.. not used to this forum! :)

In regards to special use.. citrazinic acid is used to control saturation in colour developers for film for anyone reading. Local prices were ridiculous.. none of the photo chemical suppliers in this country carry it... silverprint in the UK does at a good price for photo chemical use.. other side of the world though.

Random - 27-12-2013 at 16:40

Can someone explain me why I dissolve everything in carbonate solution after citric acid and urea reaction yet I precipitate nothing after addition of acetic acid?

Just a brown caramel colored solution with a strong chemical smell. Tried xylene but it doesn't extract anything into itself. I can't even identify the compound formed before isolating it.

barley81 - 27-12-2013 at 17:00

Yeah, I also got a caramel-colored solution when I tried it. I also observed slight fluorescence under sunlight after basification. I wasn't being serious though. Citrazinic acid is polar, so I don't think it will be soluble in xylene.

Nicodem - 28-12-2013 at 00:15

Quote: Originally posted by Random  
Can someone explain me why I dissolve everything in carbonate solution after citric acid and urea reaction yet I precipitate nothing after addition of acetic acid?

Just a brown caramel colored solution with a strong chemical smell. Tried xylene but it doesn't extract anything into itself. I can't even identify the compound formed before isolating it.

Can you give the reference to the procedure you used so that we don't need to read your mind? I have a strong suspicion that whatever reference you used was bullshit because with citrazinic acid or its amide logP there is not a slightest chance they could be extracted into xylene. Also, why would acetic acid cause precipitation? I suggest you to try a more reliable procedure - one that at least makes sense. You can verify the reliability of any published procedure by checking if they were ever cited and reproduced.

Random - 29-12-2013 at 17:12

There was this reference to citric acid synthesis posted a while ago by sauron on citric acid derivatives. I was doing it as I remembered and it said that acetic acid should precipitate citrazinic acid since it is insoluble. I thought that xylene would dissolve it into organic phase as it should be unsoluble in H2O in that document but I was wrong.

I don't think anyone here did isolate it besides many attempts at synthesis. I know it is there at least in small amounts but still I'm not sure how to do it.

Another thing is (if i remember correctly) that I have read that citrazinic acid can be precipitated by HCl in Purification of laboratory chemicals book found on google. I may be wrong, maybe I mixed something up.

[Edited on 30-12-2013 by Random]