NITROETHANE SYNTHESIS (NaEtSO4 method) failure

I probably should have dried the NaEtSO4 under a vacuum so it was BONE DRY. Then used a mortar and pestle to crush the mixture of NaEtSO4/NaNO2/K2CO3 so the chemicals were INTIMATELY MIXED. Oh well, next time i will If you want to help my channel survive then please buy a shirt at ….Link to JBSC shirts https://teespring.com/stores/jbsc/collection/unisex-men-s-t-shirts?page=1
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Link to Old man's ramblings channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJD6iGtjaP6JxVkWRr2Gz2w .My suggestions are I have 2 guesses to solutions on my mistakes with the experiment in the video above.........(1) I should have used a vacuum to remove the ethanol of crystallization off the NaEtSO4 COMPLETELY instead of just using heat and only mostly removing the ethanol of crystallization from the NaEtSO4. Also i should have used a mortar and pestle to crush all the chemicals together intimately with each other before the reaction. (2) If it still did not work then in the next attempt i would try NOT to remove any of the ethanol of crystallization from the NaEtSO4. I would leave the mono ethanol of crystallization on the NaEtSO4 and use it as is. I would still dry the NaEtSO4 so it was crunchy and bone dry but not enough to drive off the ethanol of crystallization. Also i would use a mortar and pestle to crush all the chemicals together intimately with each other before the reaction. (3) If those 2 ideas did not work i would add a small amount of water to the pot before heating and try to steam distill the nitroethane off with the water. And if that did not work i would add a stir bar and enough water so i could stir things up in the pot and try to steam distill out the nitroethane. And if that did not work i would probably give up and look else where. I looked up some videos if you want to check them out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWVoJDNlLLY and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLArJ30X1_g&t=200s and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRuuodVlDDc&t=2s