Alkanes Versus CycloAlkanes

[Scylla]

Does anyone have experience or opinion on using Sunnyside Naptha vs Klean Strip naptha?

Sunnyside according to the GC spectra posted on the FAQ is composed of primarily octane and nonane with a smaller proportion ethylcyclohexane and methyloctane.

Klean Strip on the other hand is primarily ethylcyclohexane and dimethyl and trimethyl cyclo hexanes with a very small proportion of nonane and no octane.

I remember someone mentioning one worked better vs the other for both yield and emulsions.

Also, on the link I can find no GC spectra of klean strip xylene. Does anyone have one? Sunnyside xylene seems to be o,m,p xylene with a bit of ethylbenzene. Does anyone believe klean strip product might reflect the same thing as the naptha and be a wider range of compounds? You would think xylene should be xylene should be xylene whereas "naptha" is a more of a variable mixture.

 

[Hailstorm]

Aromatic solvents (those with double bonds in their rings - xylenes, tetralin, etc.) will leave no DMT behind but unfortunately pull a lot of aromatic impurities along with it, specifically thermal decomposition products of tryptamine: indole, skatole, and 3-ethylindole that a long and hot acid boil can produce. There should be nothing wrong with using them for the primary extraction (aside of their toxicity and awful smell) as long as you recrystallize DMT from something like heptane later.

There should be no practical difference between Sunnyside and Klean Strip naphthas (aliphatic hydrocarbons, cyclic or not, have similar properties - cyclic ones are even less polar and better-suited for re-X) but I would still do an evaporation test to see if your solvent leaves any residue - bad batches do happen.

By the way, if you go aromatic, try anisole - it has to be the "greenest" and least toxic of them. Its polarity (logP = 1.94) is very close to DMT's (2.11) and it is conveniently immiscible with water. It does not form explosive peroxides easily.