Aluminum A/B, tell me if I'm effed.

[nirvanaguy70]

I'm a chemistry student (key word student) but I'm not sure about this one. I basified after acidification and simmering, My wine jug that I was using to shake my basified solution with the naptha ended up having aluminum in the lid, and it reacted (turned the brown color typical of an aluminum and NaOH reaction), so I was just wondering whether this will spoil my extraction. Like will the naptha be contaminated at this point?

 

[acolon_5]

Yeah, the amount of contamination is probably very very small.

Make sure you recrystalize at least once and you should probably be fine.

I think the big issue is cooking in an aluminum pot during the acidic stage. I doubt very much that the base solution pulled more than a few molecules of alluminum into the basic solution. Having the alluminum salt cross into the naphtha is probably unheard of.

But I am not even a chem student, so you should probably get someone elses input on this.

 

[nirvanaguy70]

Thank you for your response. continuing with the extraction. will be evaporating down some of the naphtha now. I am still a little uncertain about the reaction between Al + NaOH + 3H20. Aluminum will be converted into Sodium Aluminate, or the salt that you mentioned that is water soluble. I just hope it isn't soluble in naphtha. My other concern lies in the reaction that occurs between Al and NaOH. I'm just hoping that this violent reaction doesn't destroy the DMT. Sodium Aluminate also reacts with flammability when Ammonium based chemicals are introduced. I do think that the amount of NaALO2 will be negligible in the final naptha, so I don't think this will pose a problem, even if ammonium hydroxide is introduced for a final wash.

 

[acolon_5]

Oh, don't wash your spice in ammonia.

Use a sodium carbonate (or even sodium bicarbonate) wash on the actual naphtha containing spice.....

Ammonia results in large losses.