Safe extraction materials

[Old_Soul]

I think it would be nice to have a list of known safe materials that are safe to use in extractions. Im going to start with glass but what about porcelain or ceramic or stainless steel? I will continue to edit this post adding materials that you guys deem safe!

1 Glass

 

[nonononono]

This is highly dependent on the tek that is being used, as some materials are compatible with one tek, but not another. So, what acid is used, what base, what NPS, what temperatures, etc.

 

[Old_Soul]

Im only using naptha and lye. But I was hopping to build a guideline that would help everyone.

 

[syberdelic]

I understand the intention behind this, but there really is no "safe" list. Chemistry safety requires some basic level of understanding of chemistry as well as some common sense.

Just as an extreme example; Hydrofluoric acid (HF) will etch glass. So, you can scratch off glass from your list. I understand that this acid is fairly unlikely to be used in plant extractions, but it would not be out of the question.

I think the bottom line here is that any extraction tek might have a list of safe/acceptable substitutions as far as chemicals and vessels, but saying that something is "safe" in such a broad brush stroke is a vital mistake.

 

[Old_Soul]

Gotcha. It can be verry specific to what one is doing.

 

[Orion]

I think the bottom line here is that any extraction tek might have a list of safe/acceptable substitutions as far as chemicals and vessels, but saying that something is "safe" in such a broad brush stroke is a vital mistake.

Very sensible and very true!

Im going to start with glass but what about porcelain or ceramic or stainless steel?

Porcelain and other ceramics should be fine if they are glazed and not raw fired clay. The glaze itself is made of glass. Steel is fine for neutral and mildly acidic solutions, but I wouldn't use strong bases or acids around metals anyway. Glass bottles are great but the lids almost always defeat the object of using glass, as they are often cork, plastic or aluminum (which reacts with lye and eventually leaks). I'd love to find big glass bottles with steel or glass lids, or even PTFE.

HDPE is not good with non-polar solvents such as naphtha unless you plan to salt out the alkaloids, leaving any leached plastics behind.

You can do the whole drytek method with lime in one glass beaker. Steel spoon to mix. A good way to be safe is to keep it simple and that's as simple as it gets.