Crystals vanishing

[Rno]

Hello,
I just extracted dmt crystals using Minty love's dptek1 yesterday and stored them in 2 mini glass jars of jam of 50g. One was for the more white crystals and the other for yellower crystals. But today I opened both jars to check on them and the white crystals have totally disappeared and have been replaced by a transparent and sticky goo while the yellow crystals are still a bit visible but very wet and also covered in goo. The temperature in the room was about 30 degrees celcius all day long. I wonder why this storage method was inapropriate and if its possible to turn the goo back into crystals ?

 

[Rno]

Quick question: Do you plan to use lye, or sodium carbonate? Calculations with the latter may need to take its hydration level into account, unless you use anhydrous material.

I plan on using lye, as its the only I have already at home. It is crystals so isnt the hydration level so low we can ignore it ?

 

[Transform]

I plan on using lye, as its the only I have already at home. It is crystals so isnt the hydration level so low we can ignore it ?

If stored correctly - mostly. Lye is hygroscopic to the point of deliquescence if the humidity levels are sufficient, so it's probably worth including a bit extra to account for incidental absorption of both water and carbon dioxide.

 

[Rno]

So I just did your calculations, and I got those results, using a MW of 188,268 for DMT, 60,052 for acetic acid, 40 for lye and considering 6% acetic acid in 6° white vinegar (that's usually how it works for alcohol in France) : for the jar with 0.392g I got 0.125g of acetic acid therefore 2.08g of vinegar and 0.083g of lye. For the jar with 0.330g : 0.07g lye and 1.754 g vinegar. Does that look good ? And do I need to let sit 3 days or do 3 days of freeze/thaw for the vinegar+DMT ?

If stored correctly - mostly. Lye is hygroscopic to the point of deliquescence if the humidity levels are sufficient, so it's probably worth including a bit extra to account for incidental absorption of both water and carbon dioxide.

 

[Transform]

do I need to let sit 3 days or do 3 days of freeze/thaw for the vinegar+DMT ?

No, that's only for releasing DMT from bark material.

Are you certain about the 6° = 6% acidity thing? Does this scale have a special name? I'm thinking it's likely to be the Baumé scale, which is a curious take on density left over from the 18th century. I'd suggest double checking that, just in case it leads to use of an insufficient amount of vinegar.

The rest of your calculations appear sound at first glance, I've been avoiding doing them for myself since that is technically your job

 

[Rno]

No, that's only for releasing DMT from bark material.

Are you certain about the 6° = 6% acidity thing? Does this scale have a special name? I'm thinking it's likely to be the Baumé scale, which is a curious take on density left over from the 18th century. I'd suggest double checking that, just in case it leads to use of an insufficient amount of vinegar.

The rest of your calculations appear sound at first glance, I've been avoiding doing them for myself since that is technically your job

So i checked again to be sure and found that in France, the degree of vinegars is defined as such : 'The acetic content of vinegars, expressed in acetimetric degrees, is equal to their total acidity expressed in grams of acetic acid per 100 milliliters of vinegar measured at a temperature of +20°C.' So that would mean 6° is 6g/100mL which is approximately 6% mass. I dont know if this scale has a special name but its the same way we measure alcohol in France (I think in some countries it's a bit more complicated) : a 10° drink just means there is 10% alcohol in it.

 

[blig-blug]

Is 6° the equivalent of 3% w/v acetic acid. I'd have to guess that by analogy with the (forgive me!) similarly pointlessly illogical approach to alcohol concentration and other units of measurement I've seen in use in certain quarters

At least in Spain, X° just means X% of acetic acid. Why they write it like that is a mystery to me.

 

[Transform]

So i checked again to be sure and found that in France, the degree of vinegars is defined as such : 'The acetic content of vinegars, expressed in acetimetric degrees, is equal to their total acidity expressed in grams of acetic acid per 100 milliliters of vinegar measured at a temperature of +20°C.' So that would mean 6° is 6g/100mL which is approximately 6% mass. I dont know if this scale has a special name but its the same way we measure alcohol in France (I think in some countries it's a bit more complicated) : a 10° drink just means there is 10% alcohol in it.

Thanks for checking! Let's just try and forget that US degrees proof - the source of this my confusion - ever happened, as well

 

[Rno]

Thanks for checking! Let's just try and forget that US degrees proof - the source of this my confusion - ever happened, as well

Just did the extraction for the first jar ! The solvent and hopefully crystals are in the freezer, ill tell you the results tomorrow !

 

[Rno]

Thanks for checking! Let's just try and forget that US degrees proof - the source of this my confusion - ever happened, as well

So I just weighted and got 0.056g from 0.330

 

[Transform]

So I just weighted and got 0.056g from 0.330

Sounds like the missing material will be stuck in the naphtha. What is the 0.330 referring to, exactly?

 

[Rno]

Sounds like the missing material will be stuck in the naphtha. What is the 0.330 referring to, exactly?

0.330g of crystals which were turned into goo. How can 0.280g of dmt be stuck in the naphtha ?

 

[Transform]

0.330g of crystals which were turned into goo. How can 0.280g of dmt be stuck in the naphtha ?

What volume of naphtha did you use? There's a residual solubility even at low temperatures - speaking of which, how cold does your freezer get?

 

[Rno]

What volume of naphtha did you use? There's a residual solubility even at low temperatures - speaking of which, how cold does your freezer get?

I used very little naphtha, I did 3 pulls and used a total of 70ml max. Should I have used more ? I don't know the temp of my freezer, probably around -4°C

 

[Transform]

I used very little naphtha, I did 3 pulls and used a total of 70ml max. Should I have used more ? I don't know the temp of my freezer, probably around -4°C

Nah, you need a 4* freezer that does to -22°C for best results. There will be rather a lot of DMT that remains dissolved in 70mL of naphtha at -4°C. You'd do well to have a thermometer for checking this.

I noticed, you mentioned that you used 2.08 g of vinegar. It would be better to measure that as a volume - 2.084 mL - since vinegar is slightly denser than pure water. Did you use the slight excess of NaOH as suggested? 83 mg you could easily round up to 100 mg for convenience's sake, likewise similarly with the lesser amount.

If you're having trouble getting your naphtha cold enough and don't want to mess around with mixing crushed ice and salt to make freezing mixtures, you may have to switch to crashing the base straight out of water.

You can do this by washing it back out of the naphtha with the requisite amount of vinegar, then adding sufficient base once more and waiting for the DMT to float to the surface. It should solidify in the fridge.

If you want crystals you'd have to dissolve the solid DMT back into clean-evaporating naphtha and then let that evaporate slowly at or below room temperature. You may actually get this result just by evaporating that (partially precipitated) naphtha pull you already have, since the A/B cycle should ensure your product is already fairly clean.

If that gives you a yield which lines up with the missing amount, you'll know the rest of your process has worked as intended. If there's still a noticeable deficit, it would indicate that too little of either the acid or the base was used, possibly even both.

And here's why we always adhere to the golden rule of extracting… I hope you've kept everything so far!