Acetone crystallization of THC-A

Is it possible to maybe distill it before using it…just a thought

2 Likes

I have hydrometer readings of nearly all of my solvents, a gallon of acetone I purchased from Home Depot in April of 2017 had a specific gravity of 0.795, the acetone reference I posted above states 0.791.

There are other density values for acetone, Wikipedia states 0.7845, PubChem has two other references at 0.79.

I just retested it, 0.794 @ 68F. and took pics.



The hydrometer states it’s calibrated at 60F, and at 60.0F I read 0.798. Still close to anhydrous even though I’ve taken samples four times and returned them to the container.



3 Likes

Why preference of acetone xtals over butane? Just curious

1 Like

Its not necessarily a preference. Just another way to get to the same end result. I see people heavily guarding their crystal tech like they are the gods from heaven or something and they make it more complicated than need be. With this method anyone can get into growing crystals with minimal supplies and solvents, making for a better community through hands on learning.

Some people dont have a closed loop setup or a fancy crystallization chamber, or just plain dont want to mess around with pressurized flammable or explosive gasses. I do have these things but i prefer to do it this way because its a lot less finnicky and with practice can produce decent crystal clusters after a second recrystallization.

11 Likes

I think you guys are missing the best recrystalization solvent, Terpenes! Get yourself some plant derived terpenes and use that for the final recrystallization, if there’s any residual stuck in the lattice, it will just be terpenes! :slight_smile:

10 Likes

exactly…

So you basically just get the acetone crystals then drop them into a small amount of say limonine then would you jar it then let it sit or would you leave the lid off the mason jar?

2 Likes

that’s the gist of it…

you probably want to get your D-Limonene good and warm first…because you want to completely dissolve those first round crystals.

5 Likes

No, u definitely want to crush your diamonds and then pull vac on that. Get all the acetone out that u can, then redissolve that into terps. Or else your going to still have a small amount of acetone trapped inside.

9 Likes

agreed!

no point in recrystallizing from a mixture of acetone & D-limonene.

1 Like

So why wouldn’t diamonds dissolve back into the terpene layer already present in the jar that’s the part that’s confusing me.

2 Likes

it would dissolve back into terpenes. then after the terpenes start to evaporate and you hit saturation point, the crystals will nucleate onto scratches in the glass or particles in the solution. If you are seeing crystals in your concentrate with no temperature or pressure fluctuation, then your concentrate is at full saturation and are in abundance of thca compared to terpenes, which needed to dissolve the thca. I dont know the exact number but i would guess when you reach saturation point you are probably near 9:1 thca:terpenes, so 90% cannabinoids and 10% terpenes.

7 Likes

What type of purity are we talking here? It this going to rival using pentane to crystallize? Clear or muddy looking lattice?

Is it safe to say that acetone extraction, when done properly, will preserve terpene profiles like that of its LPG (isobutane/n-butane/propane) counterparts?

That would make sense. It’s not polar and doesn’t have a similar boiling point to the terpenes. Also it should be easier to purge.

1 Like

2 Likes

As to acetone’s polarity, here’s a list of common solvents arranged as to polarity,

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showpost.php?p=7933632&postcount=162

Notice ethyl acetate is more non-polar, and 100% pure is available off the shelf in every state but California.

Kleen Strip labels theirs M.E.K. Substitute,

http://www.kleanstrip.com/uploads/documents/GME71SUB_SDS-1636.pdf

A mixture of ethyl acetate and butyl acetate is used in nail polish, the wickedly sweet odor is the butyl, the ethyl is much more mellow. Excellent dissolving power with relatively low toxicity.

3 Likes

I just got done looking …

U can actually get acs reagent grade food grade acetone…

1 Like

We sell 99.7% acetone used in the semiconductor industry.

2 Likes

@Aurion @Future @ColumbiaLabsPDX @cyclopath

Well, what about using Pentane to recrystalize THCa, and preserve terpenes? It’s non-polar and its boiling point is 36° colder than acetone and a hell of a lot lower bp than etoh. It seems like it would be more likely to preserve the terpenes than the other common chemicals, ie hexane heptane ethanol acetone I hear thrown around; but not propane or butane, which we know that’s dangerous when doing post extraction filtration.

One other question I have is how soluble plant based waxes fats and lipids are in pentane vs etoh which is most commonly used with winterization. Why is etoh the conventional methodology for this and not pentane? It’s the same price, they are both class 3 solvents, but pentane boils much lower; am I missing something?

Additionally, Could you take terp sauce layer, add pentane, winterize, filter carbon scrub, and then winterize to increase the clarity and purity of the terp layer?

7 Likes