Yes, particulates are a major cause of emulsions. One has to be extra mindful of the degree of agitation used in such circumstances.
I don't recall seeing what kind of water you've been using for this extraction. Was it distilled/deionised? Hard tap water will form extensive precipitates on the addition of base.
To get a ballpark figure for how much naphtha you'll be needing to use, check out the thread by
@Brennendes Wasser if you haven't already:
This is a Compilation of chemical properties of the Nexus' members most common molecules to come across. Not all are
Psychedelics, but some are just other imporant molecules or derivates.
People searching the internet for temperatures to evaporate DMT or similar compounds will quickly stumble upon values on Wikipedia like a boiling temperature 160 °C at 0,0008 bar for
DMT and even 320 °C at 0,00013 bar for
Bufotenin. While this temperature physically corresponds to the
boiling point like water at 100 °C, you can
evaporate those Tryptamines...
More specifically, this post:
DMT
Solubility:
boiling Naphtha (80 °C, C6-C7, 60-80 °C)
"
infinite"
(the DMT will melt and just create a homogeneous liquid-liquid solution. In the end it may even be a
solution of Naphtha in DMT)
Example: In just 5 ml of boiling Naphtha you could easily add 4 g of DMT, while only doubling the initial volume. No precipitation would ever show up.
Naphtha (20 °C, C6-C7, 60-80 °C)
29,3 g in 1 L
2,93 g in 100 ml
Naphtha in the freezer (-20 °C, C6-C7, 60-80 °C)
1,09 g in 1 L...
Ideally you'll be reckoning for sufficient naphtha to dissolve up to 10 g of DMT (making a generous assumption as to the quality of your bark) although the volume of naphtha can be smaller if you're reusing it for pulls after the freeze precipitation.
The paragraph where this sentence sits seems a bit garbled - can you explain what you're wondering about adding more naphtha to: the base solution, or the crystals? It seems like you'd benefit from thinking a little bit more systematically.
4 g isn't that great. I'd definitely suggest adding more pulls, along with making sure that the pH is high enough to start with. I suppose it might be an OK yield if you've written off the emulsion for the moment. Don't throw that away, though - there's still a good chance of recovering something from it.