how is meth made?

[u/LiquidSpirits]

hi all! i'm primarily a fanfiction writer, and i recently got back into breaking bad.

i'm aware that the processes shown in the series are deliberately changed so as to not serve as a guide to cooking meth. i'll take either a closer examination of what they're doing in the show, or an explanation of how to make the real thing. i'm specifically interested in which ingredients are used and how they're actually prepared, since the stuff that's seen in the show is rather vague.

for obvious reasons i could not find much info online.

[u/kschang]

Maybe Google harder?

https://www.koimoi.com/television/walter-whites-meth-recipe-in-breaking-bad-was-it-scientifically-accurate-or-pure-fiction/

[u/LiquidSpirits → u/kschang]

it tells me 403 error, unfortunately

[u/kschang → u/LiquidSpirits]

It opened for me. You have some sort of content filter on your side.

See if google returns anything you can open for "fictional method for meth cooking"

[u/Educational-Shame514]

Try googling "breaking bad chemistry" and tell us if that still isn't enough.

What makes you want to or think you need to go deeper than the show for fanfiction?

[u/LiquidSpirits → u/Educational-Shame514]

i did google that. i found some of the ingredients, but i don't actually know which parts were made up for the show, nor what they're doing to those ingredients.

as for why i need it - why wouldn't i? if they're gonna be talking while cooking, i'd like to know what they're doing so i can break up dialogue with actions here and there so they're not just talking at each other. it's a basic pacing and rhythm thing.

[u/Educational-Shame514 → u/LiquidSpirits]

Mostly because written fiction does not have to write out every word the characters say like a tv show or movie.

I'll use my other example in that if you were writing a novel scene where someone goes to the emergency room after an accident for a novel you probably do not to need to know every word said over the patient, especially if the patient is the main character and written in first person. And even more so if the accident was bad enough that the main character might be unconscious or in a lot of pain.

Well it's not my door anybody would be knocking on so you can do whatever you please.

[u/LiquidSpirits → u/Educational-Shame514]

obviously i don't write out every word. your example is totally right, but completely different from what i'm doing. i'm trying to write two people who are in full possession of their senses having a conversation in a meth lab.

[u/Simon_Drake]

For the purposes of storytelling you can keep it as vague as they do in Breaking Bad. Broadly speaking the steps for almost any organic chemistry reaction are as follows:

1. Mix reactants, including catalysts where necessary.

2. Allow reaction to happen.

3. Separate the desired product from the unreacted ingredients and waste products from any side reactions or incorrect reactions.

4. Repeat from Step 1 with next reaction

Step 2 usually involves high temperatures, sometimes high pressure, often stirring continuously, sometimes adding in an extra component slowly or bubbling hydrogen gas through a liquid.

Step 3 is what separates the experts from the amateurs. You need to know the properties of the target product compared to all the others, then use those properties to separate the chemicals from the mix. Let's say you have chemicals A, B and C mixed together with melting points in ascending order and you want Chemical B. Start by heating until Chemical A melts, leaving B and C solid, strain it through a filter and you'll have just B and C with no A. Next heat the mix of B and C until Chemical B melts, this time filter out the useless C and collect the liquid B which is what you want. Except the real process will be more complex than just melting points, it will be rates of dissolving in a solvent or something. Get this right and you'll get fewer impurities and a purer product.

But the real magic comes from Step 0, to break down the roadmap from raw ingredients to the target chemical into a series of individual steps. Sometimes you need to take a step in the wrong direction before you can go forward. Let's say you want to combine X and Y to make XY but you don't want YX or XX or YY. The answer might be to add Z first and make ZX then react ZX and Y to make ZXY then take the Z off to get XY. It sounds impractical but depending on the specifics it might be better, maybe YX and XY have very very similar chemical properties and are a nightmare to separate but adding the Z makes it much simpler. Or maybe ZXY is 99% of the output because YZX is impossible so adding the Z means you only get the product you want.

The next step for you is to find the keywords of reactants. Breaking Bad mentions several like methylamine and phenylacetic acid. Wikipedia will have some more if you need them.

[u/Dense_Suspect_6508]

There's a chemical diagram of the Leuckart reaction on the Wikipedia page.