Chromatography use. Non-polar solvent question.

Iv been removing cannabinoids from my fractions with d- Limonene as my non polar solvent, I followed beaker’s guide but I’m stubborn, so I go through a lot, and I mean a lot of d-limonene because some cannabinoids are more polar then others.

Any solvent that I could use in conjunction with my D-limonene to increase polarity?

Water ph conditioned?

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Why don’t you just use acetone and no limonene?

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Will that adequately elute acidic cannabinoids from the pigments and the rest?

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Acetone and water ?

Also because I have d-limonene at 55gallons

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Orange peel heaven

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Love it buddy.

No i am sure just acetone is fine(no water because it is hard to remove), diethyl ether is best because it is easier to remove (low BP). So wash your fractions with acetone 3 times then pour some in and take a tlc of the solution in the fraction to see if there are any compounds left in the glass fraction.

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Thankyou very much QGA

Been using it no problem, check my Ig @Thedistillator

I was taught in grad school that straight acetone on a column is a BIG no no. It can polymerize through the aldol reaction and cause heat evolution.

Ethyl acetate is my preferred polar solvent. A few percent should move everything but the acid forms.

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There should be some published conditions online.

It is common to use a methanol gradient to push more polar compounds from the baseline.

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My understanding is he was just asking about cleaning out his fractions not actually running the column. Yes do not run columns in acetone unless you are using reverse phase C18 silica gel

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I remind the forum, if you have regular phase silica gel (polar 60-300 micrometer mesh) the general way to elute very polar substrates is with 10% MeOH in methylene chloride (do not exceed 10% MeOH or you will dissolve some of your silica gel or some other shit could happen according to march’s advanced organic chemistry 5th-7th ed).

Or use my personal favorite recipe for the elution of polar compounds: Polar express: 3:1:2% ethyl acetate:ethanol:acetic acid

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Since you guys are here, may I ask about recycled silica? I see that you can clean and bake with this process:
guarconi1988.pdf (429.6 KB)

But would the recycled silica be effective at preforming thc and pesticide remediation?

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Idk i just use new silica.

ATTN: please use silica in a fume hood and be very careful not to breath the fine mesh it can cause Respiratory damage!

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Do you just throw your waste silica away, or do you sell it? Is there a silica service?

I take mine to waste management and tell them what it is.

Also i use chromo in academia and very seldomly use it in canna industry.

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Do you mind me asking how much silica your institution disposes of? I live next to a massive research college

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I dont mind but unfortunately i do not know.