Application of temperature cycling for crystal quality control during crystallization

I feel this was almost the same process I used unknowingly as 3-4 hrs before I went to bed I was heating up and burping off until jar would frost and then heat again and repeat the process until I felt I had achieved proper saturation. I feel maybe my lack of mother liquor was just not enough to keep growing or else I would have seen more growth if I had more in jar?

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I wasn’t referring to any specific revision of the PTC-100.

“First gen” was just meant to cover machines that came out in the first few years of the revolution that was PCR.

Released before the turn of the century…

I recall one early entry that used a light bulb as a heat source…and stratagene’s robocycler was a hoot (might have been the first to offer gradients across the block).

We made our own polymerase…

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This was day 10 of my temp cycling.

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This thread seems quiet considering its topic and discussion.

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I’ve been wanting to try using a peltier and a PC AIO watercooler to set up a jacketed miner for temp cycling

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That would be nice!

I just snagged a ptc-100 from ebay :partying_face:

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You’re an expert: I’ve been trying to convince anyone at my job that will listen that temperature cycling may improve our crystallization, but I don’t know where our parameters should begin.

Any spoonfuls on where to begin? Should I go for subtle or extreme temperature manipulation? Talking crystallization in 70/30 butane. Boss is fairly attached to just letting it sit in the oven for 3-6 weeks…

I remember your OG posts from ICmag. Glad to see such an old name is still killing it

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You can see my parameters above and my results from said parameters.

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Don’t PCR machines do rapid temp cycling at specified time intervals?

Doubt it could be used itself for crystal balling it up, but maybe the components?

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I asked @Killa12345 a couple years ago if he had a jacketed diamond miner…
I still haven’t done it but read 0c-29c I can’t remember the times but @Dankoholic listed his parameters and pretty ass rocks too!

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Bizzybee seems to be clearing out anything over 6" pretty cheap, I’m thinking about grabbing one of these and a lid to try it out

https://www.ebay.com/itm/165247155298?_trkparms=ispr%3D1&hash=item26797f7c62:g:4nsAAOSw0r5hw338&amdata=enc%3AAQAGAAACsPYe5NmHp%252B2JMhMi7yxGiTJkPrKr5t53CooMSQt2orsSLY2M1Gjmuwt9c03vWNfiRv8xvlIc7nvCC5Gcy73nDO35HcU9jPuvHA09M758bqAMsF0Ygsu4UXTJsriUOIlmFuepoHiMIEV4JsAnpNghdxNqC1IDgkvQ7zw0UYhzaBkPLka2vQxoOIqOQH3Q47iprBwmo7ftRpWCnm7g9orH9J2l%252F4n2N0OtejbMu4Dt2K8gC7EaDzhRfw1DEgCUJNop4LoJ77tmGie0%252BDUTAMM5Xd5ytu6UwDnXPKz4V3tBMeUZv45n7gSQr6XvbGCEMtvXfXEzBO8aEWHAujgooia9Gdv3idB1wyXqnc1nljDnSg5McL4Wkrq2e5lh%252Fqo%252Bj%252BGniyapxcl5pJu%252Bq9Dq2cjermFH9BfsOWDxOD0cZuGVyno0qsiI4pB2Rna%252F6Xfhd9sVdd0jgrwQwEaO9lSbYaXZvjbCh0ikjBNxq3HkFT8t8s3M2Lb7mr%252FhkXWOr2XNplkjjZLhOW2DwQD6alpzcGH63FVGnbZLG6YAxqRmwwmcvOc4jVOg4murAOjxO1UBPURHmzPxbhTOwyOV1qcsvGsXhaJgdi309ED1YqeTiKFK0WMcwXBEPTbSwqxGpCathJ%252FpcDcJNQMuZg0tkajx2hH%252Ff%252B5B9sumxTYzcgzviDWfWlzMQ0z%252FJ2NpePlw%252FLx5kizVcmIWy3xRwUOCIwk99eDPG4f3%252FqPJuTlxCaFLj9RgmU9EIdEou8oBk8sfsyeo8dZ6ctjpMHotqhoK%252FwfwshThpiP6e6arD4C%252BLmWXM9CjT20BHfSL4p6E8m9UXVV71cYWE7wx0ElYGjRD7u2%252BgiKrurBwEbdsKRf3HgiBGfkkfN68bzpGOFeVlCacZLuDWr7LhyZbDz9fKrgqdeRxiqPx4Wk%253D|clp%3A2334524|tkp%3ABFBMlKqxzNtf

& something like this with a valve/gauge and some sight glasses

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I’m just getting started with it myself really, but this thread has several big spoons already!

The big one in my mind is @dankoholics posts, especially post 41 and 43. being able to find the range visually, cloudy to clear temps, and then cycle between.

@savagestoners overnight growth is awesome as well

@dukejohnsons posts are pretty significant as well considering his abilities and crystal master status.

If your bosses arnt convinced by the contents of this thread to at least do some minor r and d then something aint right!

If this hasnt already been posted, I think its a good one too,
similar title to the OP too.

When I have more specifics to share you can bet I will.

I bet some others drop in and will share their experience and some ideal parameters too!

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they’ll do what you tell them to. not quite the right tool, but for off the shelf R&D they come reasonably close.

getting a dishwasher turbidity sensor in the mix to

would be the next trick…so you don’t have to sit there with a flashlight twiddling knobs.

although I now wanna go at that with a laser pointer :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

shine laser through jar. when red dot gets to a certain size, turn the heat on. when it reduces again, turn it off. have an Arduino make those decisions based on a pair of appropriately spaced photosensors (maybe a fraction finder would work).

just wish this coffee cup warmer was rated for butane :shushing_face:

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From my experience cycling down doesn’t do anything at all

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Are you saying you are always increasing temp and never reducing temp at all?

Or your swings only go up in temp on the low and high end?

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Only up. going down doesn’t do shit

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That’s not the experience I had, Before this experiment it took me a month to achieve growth like that. When I cool the solution there is a point where micro crystals are forming. You can literally see them. They basically shimmer in the mother liquor when you hold a flashlight to it. Then when the solution comes back to room temp those micro crystals melt back and stack on the already formed diamonds. In my eyes this process is like layering for growth. I’m not saying your wrong just saying that what took me 30 days to achieve before only took me 10 days with temp cycling. I am sure if I was to experiment more with this I could further speed up the process while still producing clear loose facets. Just been too busy making batter for the last few months.

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You can either ride the slope uphill or downhill depending on the amount of solvent

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If you get your mother liquor to the sweet spot that should happen from the pour without having to cycle down any temps

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The temperature is oscillating, it’s going up and it’s going down, that’s why it’s called cycling, what are you guys talking about

Perhaps you mean you restrict cycling to a certain temperature range

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