I don't think we encounter DMT oxide. There is no hard evidence for that as far as I can see. The only thing I've seen was an assumption that the oil was an oxide because (1) the orange color matched literature descriptions and (2) a "zinc reduction" turned it into xtals. BUT polymerized DMT can also be orange, and the 'zinc reduction' result is also compatible with simpler de-polymerization in acid of DMT, where zinc is not helping reduce anything. In fact, regarding (2), one can turn the oil into xtals with an acid treatment alone, no zinc is needed as later experiments showed. Further, benzyme analyzed oil from a synthesis and found no oxides, instead he found mass peaks in multiples of DMT (compatible with aggregation/oligomers/polymerization).
Therefore, it seems that calling the oil an oxide was a mistake. This highlights that it is important to confirm hypothesis with an analytical result (even if a couple observations match a particular hypothesis there can still be other explanations).
There is yet more evidence against the DMT oxide claim. Brennendes Wasser made DMT oxide with peroxide (confirmed analytically) and found that it is an orange wax that with a cherry flavor that is not active. That is not what we encounter in extractions where the orange oil does not smell like cherries (it smells like xtal DMT) and is active. Before these analytical results, people assumed that DMT oxide converted to DMT with heat, but that seems to be false based on Brennendes Wasser's results. Instead of a DMT oxide conversion with heat, they simply never had DMT oxide to begin with and made another false assumption to hold their previous false assumptions together.
Relevant threads discussing this with analytical data and experimental results without zinc:
An aggregating/polymerization model also helps understand things better in my opinion:
The strongest results we have found so far to minimize polymer is that acid treatment helps, and also that dilute DMT basing also helps (e.g. see Jees's results above), and that a light saturated hydrocarbons seem to help (e.g. using lighter fluid with C6-8 instead of heavier painter's naptha with C9+).
This sheds new light on the max ion tek I think. The long acid treatment (8h) can break down natural DMT aggregation. Also, the extract is diluted to 1L or so for 100g of bark (~0.3% DMT). The justification was to be near the top of the jar/bottle so pipetting is easier. However, this dilution also minimizes polymer formation, helping DMT move into the solvent and boosting xtal yield. In a few ways, max ion is also a min polymer tek, it hits a sweet spot for good partition and min polymer. Since partition cannot be increased by aqueous DMT concentration because of polymerization, a dilute DMT solution (~0.3%) helped by ~6 to 8% NaCl salt ions seems to hit a sweet spot to get a good partition into warm light naptha while avoiding polymerization.
I think it is time to kill the DMT oxide idea, and look at our TEKs with polymerization in mind. It can explain some of the observations in them (e.g. not heating the solvent to avoid oil contamination and get xtals is just a loss of yield from not picking up the less soluble DMT polymer - such TEKs yield less than max ion).
Polymer also explains some modern e-mesh results. A higher temp is needed to get full effects from polymerized DMT because the vaporizing temp goes up. Similarly, during several heat cycles of a loaded crafty starting with excess xtals, DMT polymerizes and the temp needs to be dialed up to keep on getting effects.
Therefore, it seems that calling the oil an oxide was a mistake. This highlights that it is important to confirm hypothesis with an analytical result (even if a couple observations match a particular hypothesis there can still be other explanations).
There is yet more evidence against the DMT oxide claim. Brennendes Wasser made DMT oxide with peroxide (confirmed analytically) and found that it is an orange wax that with a cherry flavor that is not active. That is not what we encounter in extractions where the orange oil does not smell like cherries (it smells like xtal DMT) and is active. Before these analytical results, people assumed that DMT oxide converted to DMT with heat, but that seems to be false based on Brennendes Wasser's results. Instead of a DMT oxide conversion with heat, they simply never had DMT oxide to begin with and made another false assumption to hold their previous false assumptions together.
Relevant threads discussing this with analytical data and experimental results without zinc:
An aggregating/polymerization model also helps understand things better in my opinion:
The strongest results we have found so far to minimize polymer is that acid treatment helps, and also that dilute DMT basing also helps (e.g. see Jees's results above), and that a light saturated hydrocarbons seem to help (e.g. using lighter fluid with C6-8 instead of heavier painter's naptha with C9+).
This sheds new light on the max ion tek I think. The long acid treatment (8h) can break down natural DMT aggregation. Also, the extract is diluted to 1L or so for 100g of bark (~0.3% DMT). The justification was to be near the top of the jar/bottle so pipetting is easier. However, this dilution also minimizes polymer formation, helping DMT move into the solvent and boosting xtal yield. In a few ways, max ion is also a min polymer tek, it hits a sweet spot for good partition and min polymer. Since partition cannot be increased by aqueous DMT concentration because of polymerization, a dilute DMT solution (~0.3%) helped by ~6 to 8% NaCl salt ions seems to hit a sweet spot to get a good partition into warm light naptha while avoiding polymerization.
I think it is time to kill the DMT oxide idea, and look at our TEKs with polymerization in mind. It can explain some of the observations in them (e.g. not heating the solvent to avoid oil contamination and get xtals is just a loss of yield from not picking up the less soluble DMT polymer - such TEKs yield less than max ion).
Polymer also explains some modern e-mesh results. A higher temp is needed to get full effects from polymerized DMT because the vaporizing temp goes up. Similarly, during several heat cycles of a loaded crafty starting with excess xtals, DMT polymerizes and the temp needs to be dialed up to keep on getting effects.