Decarbing Diamonds

All three of those are somewhat problematic to remove from one’s extract post decarb. A solid catalyst or one on a solid support would be better suited to the task.

MgO for instance…

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Interesting. does this mean MgO is not a good drying agent for solvents…when working with the cannabinoic acids…
When one is trying to be GRAS compliant …your choice is basically EtOH and Et-O-Acetate……So MgO contamination from use as drying agent is catalyst for decarb. I need to run a few tests. Comparing to Sodium sulfate…water, ethanol, MgO…all problems. do you really have “problems dealing with H20 in THC? thanks …

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This is the way

You can certainly get food-grade MgO!

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The point is not whether one can get GRAS MgO or MgSO4, but whether one wants to avoid it using these compounds as a drying technique when it comes to dehydrating usable GRAS solvents:
those solvents being known to be have considerable H20 that one may wish to be rid of. the problem being catalysis of decarboxylation which one does not care for if isolating cannabinoic acids. If you want to decarb…well throw it in the mix.
Perhaps, neat solid phase surface promotes decarbing…I’m just not familiar with this usage of MgO as suggested above. I don’t know about the solution/suspension chemistry?
I just want to check to see if drying EtOH with MgSO4 enhances decarbing with trace contamination.

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Ah, I totally misinterpreted your previous message.
I know nothing of using MgSO4 to dry ethanol. Didn’t even know that MgO is a contaminant.
Back to your original message, a solution of THCA in ethanol in my experience decarboxylates far quicker than solid THCA. For example, an ethanolic THCA solution will absolutely decarb significantly at ethanol’s boiling point. Sadly you still need to remove the ethanol afterwards.

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If you’re working with a solution that is almost entirely THC and ethanol once you’ve completed the decarboxylation, wouldn’t a simple vacuum distillation be adequate to remove the remaining ethanol? I guess the point isn’t how difficult it is, but more how much additional work it would add to a process negating any time savings.

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yes I believe that would be all you needed. I am wondering if OP wants to retain terpenes or something, which would be hard to do when implementing an ethanol distillation step

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