[Guitarmaniac86]

I require some advice on how to do the following reaction.

I cannot go into structural detail due to confidentiality reasons. I reacted an α,β unsaturated methyl ester with benzylmercaptan to form the 1,4-addition product. Now I want to remove the benzyl group to leave a tertiary SH and I am planning on doing this with sodium in liquid ammonia (lit prep) however, a lecture bottle of ammonia gas is £900+ from Sigma and I dont want to spend that kind of money.

I need the gas to be anhydrous so I was wondering if I could just take ammonium carbonate/sulphate/hydroxide heat it to decompose it, pass that gas into an empty conical which is connected to my reaction vessel at -78°C to condense the gas. 

The set up I envisage is as follows:

http://i.imgur.com/o3J1dC6.jpg

If anyone has done this please could I get some pointers, thanks!

[Dan]

You will need to dry it.

There's a recipe here:

http://www.elateafrica.org/elate/chemistry/nitrogenanditscompounds/labpreofammonia.html

[Guitarmaniac86]

Awesome thanks!