Heating lye water.

[Bemerty]

I'm a bit of a newb here, but I've tried and failed at one extraction before.

I've been looking at the tek found here:

DMT extraction using lye (sodium hydroxide) and naphtha

Crystallized DMT can be obtained from its natural plant sources using a number of chemistry extraction techniques. This article documents the procedure for one of the most common DMT methods, known as the acid-base (A/B) extraction.

psychonautwiki.org

But I've just read something concerning on these forums.

The recipe says you should boil before PHing, sure, but it also says that you should bring it back close to boiling once fully PHed up, naphtha included (although in a pan of water off the direct heat).

The thing I read elsewhere on the forum says that it's not only dangerous to heat up lye water, but also that you're turning your goodness from a salt, that can stand the heat, to a FB, which can't.

Should I follow this tech, but just keep it cold at the lye stage, or am I following a bad tek?

 

[downwardsfromzero]

You don't want to heat it up to anything more than just below the boiling point of whatever naphtha you're using. I haven't looked on the link, but it would be daft if they were saying anything other than this. It only really needs to be around 50 to 60°C.

Concentrated sodium hydroxide can get to an almost indefinitely high boiling point, right up to where you're dealing with molten sodium hydroxide. That would destroy your glassware so don't do it!

Another danger of heating lye water is that it's somewhat viscous so it will tend to spray caustic material when it bubbles, as well as being at greater risk of bumping - this is when a large amount of solvent (in this case, water) vaporises at once which can cause a large amount of caustic liquid to be ejected onto the surroundings.

Warming the solutions on a water bath should cause no problems; you do want the naphtha to be warmer during the pulls in order to maximise its solvent power for DMT.

 

[Bemerty]

That makes perfect sense. Thank you very much.

I think I've finally got this.

I guess we'll find out later today when the postman arrived.

I'll let you know how I get on.

Thanks again for all the very much appreciated help.