Greetings Roguelab:
I have an interest in UV in my lab. And I have an interest in producing CBN from other cannabinoids. I have some information that will DEFINITELY help you with your search for the right light, and with application of the UV once you get the lamp, with a photocatalyst that works great and is unreactive and is easily filtered out when you are done! And I am going to share the part that cost me 100s of hours of frustration until I figured out what screws everybody up who tries this. So, first things first, your source of 242nm UV light. Here goes: When you are searching, try searching for âUVC lampâ, because the UVC band is 100nm to 280nm. And fluorescent mercury vapor UVC lamps center at 253.7um, they emit 80+% of their light at 253.7um, though they are not that efficient! So at 11nm longer than ideal, they are as close as you will get to the ideal wavelength for what you are wanting the lamp for. And I can tell you from experience that these lamps work for CBN production! I use the 25 watt model. It took me forever to figure this out, but these lamps are only 25% efficient creating light 253.7nm, so, if you buy a UVC lamp that consumes 25 watts of electrical energy, you will only get 5 watts of useful UVC optical power out of it⌠These âUVC fluorescent lampsâ also emit at 180nm, but the quartz envelope does not pass this shorter wavelength, its all coming over at 253.7um. FYI, these are just mercury vapor fluorescent lamps without any rare earth phosphor coated on the inside of the tube, so they emit true at 253.7um from day 1 until they die. So if you search for âUVC lampâ on eBay, you will find a bunch at 253.7nm, very cheap, even pretty powerful, as in 25 watts powerful, lamps. The least expensive tend to 5 watts for less than $4USD, which put out less than 1 watt of useful UVC, up to $21USD for the 25 Watt lamps that put out just shy of 5 watts of useful UVC. UVC LEDs tend to be too high in frequency for our use, with a center of 275nm, though some less honest sellers list these as 265nm, because if you pump them properly, in theory, they emit down to 265nm. I have ordered several LEDs that were supposed to be 265nm, which ALL turned out to be 275nm, and none were powerful enough to produce any reactive oxygen species! REGARDING SAFETY - THIS IS NO JOKE, SERIOUSLY, THE CHINESE SOURCES FOR THE LAMPS ARE GREAT AND RELIABLE and INEXPENSIVE AND DO EMIT RIGHT AT 253.7, BUT THEIR SAFETY GLASSES ARE ABSOLUTELY NO GOOD, AND ARE NOT TO BE TRUSTED, EVER! Sorry to yell, but you may feel like that you are OK without eye protection. You will be mistaken if you assume that. Check out âstyropyroâ on You tube if you want verification. He does proper testing of Chinese protective glasses for various wavelengths, including UVC, with SCARY results. BUY AND USE GOOD AMERICAN OR EUROPEAN MADE UVC GLASSES, SERIOUSLY! OK, more advice for you and this will save you a BUNCH OF TIME and FRUSTRATION - Regular glass and Nitride glass ABSORB UVC at most of the wavelengths are useful for creating CBN! It took me forever to figure this out! I am embarrassed to tell you that I had to check myself several times before I figured out that the glass was absorbing the UV in the useful range! Now, with that out of the way, my next bit of advice: Titanium Dioxide. TiO2 in situ is a photocatalyst, and on its surface, which is where reactive oxygen species do their thing, and carry out redox reactions in situ.! Yes indeed, this is what you want to do! The TiO2 is opaque and thus can easily be filtered out. TiO2 is pretty much insoluble in anything we here in the forum are generally interested in, solvent wise. Next bit of advice: A QUARTZ JACKETED reactor vessel is the shiznet and BECAUSE GLASS ABSORBS UVC, IT IS THE ONLY MATERIAL YOU WANT TO USE FOR THE REACTION! The quartz passes UVC at 253.7um without power loss. So you put your UVC lamp in the part of the reactor where you would normally put the chemicals you are working on. And you use a cheap Bronze Gear pump, $24USD on theBay, because it handles very viscous fluids easily and without much of any corrosion etc. And you get a variable 12VDC power supply of the sort used for the new style RC vehicles, because the motor on these pumps is the same high tech type used on RC vehicles. And you put the cannabinoid solution, in a bucket mixed with the TiO2 and set it up so that your solution of cannabinoids ânâ TiO2 just cycles around and around and around the reaction chamber of your quartz vessel where you put your UVC lamp`, over and over until you have the CBN at the max level. I hope that I have saved you a bunch of time. If I did please let me know! If I can give you more info, just let me know and I will do my best to assist you. But you seem to be among the more capable in this forum, so I think you will discover some new things, and if you do, please do share those with me, as I am always wanting to up my game in terms of efficiency! Cheers from Santa Barbara, CA USA! 
