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why so much NaOH?

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Tangarine_Dreams

Tangarine_Dreams

Rising Star
i just dont get why i cant use as much lye as is needed to make the base liquid ph 12-14. why do i need a 11 ratio of it? i have ph paper, i know how to test with dyed liquid.

is there actually a reason for this? it seems an element from before our beloved supper pulverized mhrb.
 
Specially because it helps prevent emulsion. Also it depends on solvent used: If you use something like xylene or other 'better' solvents for dmt, then a lower pH (say, 12) can work fine because it will dissolve dmt very well... but for a solvent like naphtha, which doesnt dissolve dmt sooo well, you want a higher pH because then it increases the 'desire' of dmt to migrate to the non-polar solvent.

Lastly, it helps break up bark, further releasing dmt (though I also suspect for powdered bark it wont help too much since the dmt is mostly exposed with the large surface area anyways..). But only side-by-side testing would say if it really makes a difference in yield or not
 
Tangarine_Dreams said:
i just dont get why i cant use as much lye as is needed to make the base liquid ph 12-14. why do i need a 11 ratio of it? i have ph paper, i know how to test with dyed liquid.

is there actually a reason for this? it seems an element from before our beloved supper pulverized mhrb.
Click to expand...

Well, to raise your pH as high as 14 you will need a lot of NaOH anyway, quite close to 1:1 ratio. I believe this ratio is chosen for the sake of simplicity. Not everybody has/uses pH paper or pH meters.

STB is messy and inefficiend chemicals-wise. Extracting 100g of mhrb with an A/B you'll use a few grams of NaOH instead of ~100g with an STB.
 
Tangarine_Dreams said:
i just dont get why i cant use as much lye as is needed to make the base liquid ph 12-14. why do i need a 11 ratio of it? i have ph paper, i know how to test with dyed liquid.

is there actually a reason for this? it seems an element from before our beloved supper pulverized mhrb.
Click to expand...
I’m not sure what the minimum is for STB, but one of the many advantages of an A/B extraction is how little lye is required. My last extraction of 300g MHRB needed less than 50g NaOH.
 
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