Fable
Rising Star
I have not yet tried this but may do when I get some plant material. Or maybe sacrifice some crystal in the pursuit of knowledge.
To the more chemistry literate please let me know if this is even possible as I may be off base with the idea. If it works Ill have a Fable Tek, but lets not get too far ahead.
From Wikipedia: Isopropyl alcohol is miscible in water, alcohol, ether and chloroform. It is insoluble in salt solutions. Unlike ethanol or methanol, isopropyl alcohol can be separated from aqueous solutions by adding a salt such as sodium chloride, sodium sulphate, or any of several other inorganic salts, since the alcohol is much less soluble in saline solutions than in salt-free water. The process is colloquially called salting out, and causes concentrated isopropyl alcohol to separate into a distinct layer.[2]
I believe that IPA dissolves spice more thoroughly than a number of the standard non polar solvents (NPS). If one were to use a generous volume of IPA instead of the NPS to get a good fast pull on the freebase spice, then increase the concentration of salts by adding salt to the point of super saturation, this would presumably drive out the majority of the IPA into a separate phase.
My thoughts are that as the IPA is a polar solvent it will mix fairly well with the initial solute (which shouldn't be too salty), so the extraction would be taking place at a molecular level, with the IPA drawing the spice out with the increased salt content, so they both change phase at roughly the same time, as opposed to shaking the crap out of a biphasic mixture to facilitate the transfer to the organic phase.
I have not seen the biphasic nature of IPA before but if the salting out method were to work it could increase yield and reduce extraction times considerably.
All constructive criticisms welcome.
To the more chemistry literate please let me know if this is even possible as I may be off base with the idea. If it works Ill have a Fable Tek, but lets not get too far ahead.
From Wikipedia: Isopropyl alcohol is miscible in water, alcohol, ether and chloroform. It is insoluble in salt solutions. Unlike ethanol or methanol, isopropyl alcohol can be separated from aqueous solutions by adding a salt such as sodium chloride, sodium sulphate, or any of several other inorganic salts, since the alcohol is much less soluble in saline solutions than in salt-free water. The process is colloquially called salting out, and causes concentrated isopropyl alcohol to separate into a distinct layer.[2]
I believe that IPA dissolves spice more thoroughly than a number of the standard non polar solvents (NPS). If one were to use a generous volume of IPA instead of the NPS to get a good fast pull on the freebase spice, then increase the concentration of salts by adding salt to the point of super saturation, this would presumably drive out the majority of the IPA into a separate phase.
My thoughts are that as the IPA is a polar solvent it will mix fairly well with the initial solute (which shouldn't be too salty), so the extraction would be taking place at a molecular level, with the IPA drawing the spice out with the increased salt content, so they both change phase at roughly the same time, as opposed to shaking the crap out of a biphasic mixture to facilitate the transfer to the organic phase.
I have not seen the biphasic nature of IPA before but if the salting out method were to work it could increase yield and reduce extraction times considerably.
All constructive criticisms welcome.
