True that. He said he wants them for the flask, though, so I wanted to make sure he knows aC is also acidic catalyst for isomerization.
A neutral bleaching clay is an acidic catalyst?
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Great point!
AC in fine powder form can also jump to the collection vessel with enough boiling energy.
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No, but it is lightly activated with acidic water to improve function before achieving a final neutral pH during washout and particle classification.
The key factor is the number of Lewis acid sites. T41 is covered in acid sites in the matrix where as T5 relies on the crystal matrix itself for function.
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what does the acidic clay isomerize the product to?
Activated clay has some Lewis acidity as @Shadownaught mentioned. @xizqu was saying he wanted aC (activated carbon) as well as clay, which will definitely cause isomerization in the boiling flask.
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There are neutralized activated carbons on the market as well.
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Do you know a brand or type you can share with us?
Hey, so I kind of have two questions. When filtering through an acidic clay, you would be dealing with surface/solid state chemistry not solution right? So the acid can only work for as long as you are filtering the material through (unless you filter improperly and some solid makes it into whatever container)? In other words, you aren’t creating the ions in the solution because like chromatography you are just dealing with the acidic end groups. Hope that makes sense.
@Shadownaught xtractordepot carries your products i believe! Im pretty close to them. Ill try the bleaching clay soon! Is the neutral ph clay as affective as the acidic one?
@Photon_noir so because it has some acidic site it will still cause isomeriation?
Several people, and loads on ig, have mentioned they prefer proper prep instead of clay/ac in the boiling flask. I never get the same results in terms of color with pre processing. Maybe im doing something wrong? I usually just winterize, degum and then distill but when i was testing no clay in the boiling flask i followed this method.
Winterize - Degum - Carbon and Clay scrub at around 60C - 1st pass - Ethanol to Hexane partition - Saline scrub - 2nd pass. With all that, the color is way more gold than water clear and has way more of an azulene taste. I can never pull a dark blue azulene out with no absorbents in the flask. I get some for sure but not nearly as much as with clay in the flask. Suggestions?
FYI to all, when explaining, i may ask several questions as im not a chemist. Just an average guy trying to wrap my brain around this. This all way so much easier back in 2015 lol
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I do exactly this, except I move the adsorbent scrubs to post degum. Those phosphatides like to “gum up” the adsorbents (that’s actually where the term degumming comes from) which makes them less effective. Also, most of them work better in an alkane solution vs an ethanol solution, which tends to leach pigment from the adsorbents
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And that gives you close to water clear Delta 9? I’ll try again with your recommendations. Just trying to get a light color high d9 without chroma. Chroma seems like the best option now a days.
@Future silaceous minerals like hydrated silica are used for degumming processes, just fyi.
@xizqu Only “activated” materials (which includes acid activated carbon and clays) have the potential to isomerize from the scrub, since they can and do sometimes leach excess acid into the solution.
Naturally, they can certainly catalyze isomerization of CBD and Δ9 both to Δ8-THC in the distillation boiling flask.
However, the Lewis acidity of neutral clay will only have the potential to isomerize CBD to Δ9-THC under anhydrous conditions in the distillation boiling flask. This is a more valuable process, so if you try it, keep it on the down low, but please share your results with me!
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You know me! I’ll try it out and shoot over the lab tests! What’s your favorite lab in la?
Second, would you still recommend decarbing prior to adding the clay in the boiling flask? We always do it but want to make sure.
I don’t have a favorite in LA, but my favorite in CA is Anresco.
Yes, I would always recommend vacuum decarbing in an oven prior to putting crude into the boiling flask. Also, warm decarboxylated crude is much easier to hand-mix dry ingredients into with a thin rubber spatula to make sure it is all wetted before pouring it into the boiling flask. That prevents any dust clouds suddenly emerging from your mixture while under vacuum.
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Okay, I tried lol
What, you don’t remember me sending you a photo of carbon coating the entire system? First time trying the Tek. Yeah mixing isn’t a problem anymore. Will have results sometime this week! Want to try nuetral ac too so I’ll have to look for that.
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I vaguely remember that under a different name on ig? But, yes, that’s why you must pre-mix any dry additives.
“Activated” carbon is always acidic with carboxylic acid groups all over each particle. That’s what makes it work. You will have better luck with neutral clay.
Different name. I was your first client.
Some mentioned neutral ac in this thread so I got the idea. You know better than I! Will report back the results when I have them! Same number or should I shoot it via email?
Thanks everyone for all the help! It’s greatly appreciated! 
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