C-Bleach affect on PH of distillate?

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In my ongoing efforts to eliminate the “Red Ring of Death” as I like to call it, I have been going through my processes step by step trying to test and eliminate as many variables as I can. I have updated my distillation SOP’s to match the SOP’s provided by @Future and the Good Life Gang and have managed to bring my distillation temps down to acceptable levels (usually running between 195C and 220C). I have tried everything suggested on this forum as far as storage solutions go from Argon, to Nitrogen, to vacuum sealing, to syringes, to cold storage in a refrigerator. I have found that vacuum sealing and storing in the refrigerator seems to stave off the oxidization (this is what we’re all assuming this is right?) the best. However, when the oil is put in a cartridge the oxidization occurs within 48 hours regardless of temperature. I have even tried spraying argon on the top of the cartridge prior to capping. Nothing.

After banging my head against the wall for months now, I had a realization this morning. I’ve been performing my heptane/brine wash (base, neutral, acid, neutral, basic, etc. til emulsion layer is gone then ending on two neutral washes.) before performing the C-Bleach “wet bleaching” SOP. From what I know about isomerization and the affect of this magical product on THC when placed in the boiling flask I have to assume it is on the acidic side of the spectrum. So, my question is this: Could it be possible that performing the wet bleaching after the washes could be throwing my PH off and causing this rapid oxidization? Also, does anyone have any tips on actually testing the PH of oil in solute? Should I just stick a litmus strip in there?

Any answers or suggestions, as always, are much appreciated. I posted this here because I am leaving for vacation for 9 days and won’t be able to supervise my staff doing any experimentation. Hoping to have some more inspiration and ideas to try when I get back! Thanks fam!

Relevant Threads:
PH Balancing THC distillate
Red Ring of Death

EDIT: added links to two relevant threads that have discussed the oxidization topic in the past. Hoping this helps.

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You could pre-wet the litmus paper or full range oH test strip with DO water and then dip it in the oil. The ions should migrate from the oil to the strip. I worked in the environmental chem world where we did extreme pH extractions in both acidic and basic conditions. 2.0 acidic and 12.0 basic.

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Thanks for the reply! Wouldn’t the strip start taking the reading of the water before it hit the oil or would it adjust once the ions have migrated? How does one go about getting DO water? Is that something you can buy or should I just stick a bubbler in some distilled water?

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Your local grocery store sells De-ionized water as distilled water.There are no ions present in DO water because they are left being during distillation. The pure water will allow ions in the oil to migrate into the water soaked portion of the strip and then provide an indication by the method of the test strip.

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You might have to rinse the oil off the strip using the distilled water. The polarity and viscosity differences between the oil and water offer a challenge but it’s doable.

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Just buy distilled water from walmart. It is ion free, and if you have any ions in your material, the distilled water will extract them out

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The strip will read the water first and if you are using deionized or distilled water you should see no pH reading. When you test the oil with the water prewetted test strip it will allow the ions present in the oil to migrate to the test strip and give a pH indication.

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