Some reassurance needed for a newbie

[john_wayne1]

Hello. SWIM just completed his first extraction using "QT's Extraction for Students", which he recently read was a poor guide. Oh well. The only difference was instead of using drain cleaner products, he used NaOH crystals. The end product was mostly brown, with white specks mixed in throughout. Almost looks like dirt. The evaporation time was over one entire week. SWIM read the sticky about the different colors of crystals, but still was unsure. What do you guys think? Thanks a lot!

 

[jbark]

The brown is likely residue from your naptha. Redissolve in just the right amount of whatever solvent you have used (or preferably bestine) to dissolve all the crystals. If there is anything that remains undissolved, decant the solvent off and discard the undissolved bits. Then freeze precip: put solvent into a glass container (preferably plexiglass) and put in the freezer (one that goes down to at least -18C) and wait 48-72 hours without disturbing it. Then remove and quickly pour off solvent: there should be white crystals on the bottom of the glass container. Let the remaining naptha evap off and scrape the spice into a pile with a razor and you're good to go!

good luck,
JBArk

 

[obliguhl]

The brown is most likely lye tea residues, you don't want to smoke that! Be more careful seperating the layers the next time and do a sodium carbonate wash and a recrystallization.

 

[john_wayne1]

The brown is most likely lye tea residues, you don't want to smoke that! Be more careful seperating the layers the next time and do a sodium carbonate wash and a recrystallization.

Thanks for the help! How would one go about doing a sodium carbonate wash?

 

[Touche Guevara]

The brown is most likely lye tea residues, you don't want to smoke that! Be more careful seperating the layers the next time and do a sodium carbonate wash and a recrystallization.

Thanks for the help! How would one go about doing a sodium carbonate wash?

The idea is that freebase spice is insoluble in water, while lye and other contams are soluble. So by taking some basified water and thoroughly mixing it with your spice/contam mess, you should be able to drain off the nasty bits while preserving your spice. This would work if there was still a naptha layer, btw, just decant and save the naptha and discard the water.

 

[john_wayne1]

Alright thanks! What pH should the basified water be around?

 

[obliguhl]

Just use sodium carbonate saturated water, redissolve your cxrystalls in plenty of naphta first....don't wash the crystalls! After the wash, crystallize, and recrystallize....this should give you a very clean product.

 

[Kazoo...]

Then freeze precip: put solvent into a glass container (preferably plexiglass) and put in the freezer

"plexiglass" is a plastic and may be dissolved by many solvents, so probably not the best type of container to use...

but glass containers(with lid) good!!!!!!

:d

 

[vovin]

QT's is one of the first teks that was written. I used it myself back in the good old days. Good news!!! I solved your issue when I wrote my tek so the gunk is not junk bro. Dont toss it. What you need to do is a solvent wash. The issue is that during the process tiny bubbles of basified solution homogenously mixed itself into the solvent. When you evap all this gunk is in the result. BUT!!!!! this stuff is not soluble in the solution. It was only there trapped as tiny bubbles so if you re dissolve as I wrote in my tek you can get the spice out without dissolving the basified solution as it happened with me the result after a solvent wash or two is pure crystals.

A bad extraction can be often saved with a solvent wash. Not everytime but more often than not.

BTW pexiglass is plastic and you should never use plastic. Hell if mothers milk can extract chems from baby bottles what do you think a solvent will do??? But in context I bet he meant pyrex.

Also, random tip: Regular glass is prone (very prone) to thermal shock so pickle jars are dangerous if you are thinking of a heated bath or anything that will raise the temp. Pyrex is the only glass to be used when heat is involved.