Place 100 Grams of 2,5DMB into a 500ml flask and add 200grams of nitromethane. Most of the solids should dissolve but if they don't immediately, don't worry - they will once you start heating them. When most of them are dissolved, add 10 grams of ammonium acetate. Place the flask into an oil bath on an electric hotplate, connect the condenser and start a slow water flow through the condenser. DO NOT use open flame in any of these procedures. Nitromethane is very flammable! It is, in fact, rocket fuel. It's dangerous enough using an electric hot plate because of the sparks produced when the thermostat clicks on and off, but if you keep reasonable ventilation and a watchful eye on things, you should be okay. Turn the stove up to about 100 degrees celsius, the boiling point of nitromethane, and adjust it until the solution is boiling nicely. In a short time the color of the solution will turn yellow. Four hours later, when you are done refluxing, the color should be a deep red.
Immediately set up for vacuum evaporation. If you let the solution cool off too much it may spontaneously crystalize, making it more difficult to purify, so do a little planning ahead of time. Turn the heat off, detach the condenser from the flask and add a few boiling chips to mixture. Boiling chips provide a very large surface area for lots of small boiling bubbles to form. This will keep the solution boiling smoothly without any "bumps" or big erratic bubbles. Connect the vacuum hose and apply a vacuum very gently at first and build up to a rolling boil without boiling up into the hose. As the solution evaporates, the flask will cool down and you will have to adjust the heat of the hot plate to keep a steady boil going. Eventually, you will remove enough solvent and the whole mass will crystalize into bright pumpkin-orange crystals.
Turn off the heat and remove the vacuum hose from the flask. Always remove the hose from the flask before turning off the water. Otherwise, as the pressure drops water may be sucked into your product. Add 100ml of boiling isopropyl alchohol (IPA) to the mass and stir it as well as you can, breaking up all of the clumps. Your hot plate may still be hot and if you are working near it be sure NOT to splash any of this nitrostyrene onto the hot surface. The resulting fumes are a very potent teargas, something you don't want to experience! Let the flask cool and then pour off the red-colored alcohol solution. Add another 100ml of boiling IPA to the crystals and rinse as before. Rinse at least two more times or until needle-like crystals form out of the amorphous orange mush. Filter these crystals off and air dry