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Can anyone tell me how to properly do a zinc reduction?

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physics envy

physics envy

Rising Star
I have used Q21's tek several times (with naphtha pulls) but I think my bark has lots of n-oxides in it now as my yield was very poor. Some searching on the nexus turned up the possibility of doing a zinc reduction during acidification to break the oxides down and recover the spice.

I purchased a zinc anode from a marine store and can file it down into a powder (I assume) but can anyone give me directions on how to go about using filtering out the zinc? I have the mud from the extraction, and also more powdered bark to play with. So I could do it pre-extraction and/or post-extraction.

I did post this in the welcome area but didn't get any responses so I thought maybe in here someone will have some experience...Thanks in advance!!!
 
benzyme said:
you won't be doing much of a reduction with zinc, it has a low reduction potential.
Click to expand...

but..... but I thought people were saying it works really well. What's the deal?
 
Its been mentioned before, but i've always been interested in electrolysis reduction.

en.wikipedia.org

Electrolysis - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

From what i can deduce from wiki, it seems compounds contained withing the solvent (water) can indeed be reduced at the cathode. I'm not too sure on how you could figure out an easyish method to try this, but it seems to have some potential. Definitely a project i will be interested in trying out when i get some free time and do some more research on how to go about it.
 
hmm, I have used a home made electrolysis to de-rust items (primarily straight razors): using a car battery charger, a plastic bucket, lye and distilled water a la this instructable http://www.instructables.com/id/Electrolytic-Rust-Removal-aka-Magic/ ....

Not sure about direct application to extraction and reduction of oxides, I need to do some serious homework before I can give a good answer. Just thought I would throw this into the mix.
 
Benz knows his chemistry way more than me but im pretty certain Zinc reduction does work with reducing n-oxides, it has been reported in literature.

For example this publication im attaching, they reduce some n-oxide (unrelated alkaloid but principle is the same) by lowering solution to pH 2 with sulphuric acid and adding excess zinc, stirring for 3 hours (at room temp), filtering , basing and extracting. It could work using HCl in the acidic phase, maybe with acetic acid too, but im not sure.

Anybody could make a side-by-side test, with some old bark, one half with zinc step, one without, extract from both and compare yields. Or oxidize a certain amount of dmt with hydrogen peroxide, redissolve in acidified water, divide in two, half do the zinc, half not, rebasify and re-extract, compare yields.
 

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So yes its been documented, using zinc and acetic acid for reduction of DMT N-Oxide. Snozz posted the paper here.

I would simply do as I posted above, have an acetic acid solution with your alkaloids, mix with zinc for a few hours, filter, base, extract.


Also as a curiosity (a doubt we once had here on the nexus) the n-oxide can be made from DMT using hydrogen peroxide, as the paper says.
 
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