High CBN Conversion Methods

Pics and vids of start to finish OTC iodine tek incoming!

attempting procedure is as follows
add KI to a beaker, add just enough water to dissolve (eg 100ml)
add equal amount of HCL (100ml)
KCL precipitates with stirring, when no more precipitate forms
add 5x volume of 3% H2O2 (current total volume is 200ml, so add 1000ml)
Iodine will immediately precipitate out as a solid crystal and make solution opaque and cloudy brown
allow crystals to fully precipitate and sink to the bottom, about 15 minutes.
decant extra liquid
filter over buchner funnel, wash repeatedly with distilled water and allow to dry under vacuum.

12 Likes

I have, ITs a beautiful reaction but needs to be paired with decent throughput chroma imo. ITs pretty labor intensive and need absurd amounts of the thiosulfate, But it definitely works. Turned 90% CBD to 50% CBN, first time. I didnt have a good scale tho so im sure my try at a 2 molar equivalency wasnt right on. Oddly enough I got a large peak at the THC-a range as well, like

6 Likes

So this will turn cbd to cbn? What about if youre trying to convert just delta 9? Someone told me iodine is how you can do thc remediation on cbd disty

3 Likes

Careful with the drying under vacuum, Iodine is a solid at room temp yes but its also highly volitile. You also definitely want to go through a Iodine distillation process no matter if youre synthesizing it or bought it. A sublimator is ideal for this distillation but you can do the same with a hot plate and two pyrex dishes stacked on each other, bottom filled with iodine and top filled with water. make sure the seal is tight and every 30 minutes you can wait for the system too cool, remove the top dish, scrape the crystals into a sealed container, and repeat.

Also i dont think you need so much HCL, unless its really dilute.

Unfortunately it doesnt work that way, if im not mistaken. Its called a Markovnikov reaction i believe. Essentially Iodine is a hydrogen-harvester given its near-complete valance shell, And this reaction is non-specific meaning that its not targeted towards a specific cannabinoid. It will turn most major cannabinoids into their CBN or -varin derivatives. According to my tests its not a viable candidate for thc remediation unless a specific catalyst is found, or youre willing to degrade everything to CBN, which would technically rem. THC

6 Likes

I’m hunting for CBN so if this works im happy

1 Like

potentially the THC would all be converted to CBN before all CBD if the conc of THC is low right?

1 Like

whats the chroma for? cleaning / workup? any reason why not that could be skipped? weird side products?

It seems to be a three part reaction, as you steal hydrogens from cbd in cyclizes and forms thc, which then becomes unsaturated and becomes CBN. So no

6 Likes

Woah! So you’re making cbd into thc then into cbn with this? That’s awesome

4 Likes

The procedure from the paper works well. It’s hard to get over 70% yield though. I have modified this process and am seeing better yields at higher scale.

13 Likes

Is pure cbn like cbd isolate?

2 Likes

Yes white cristaline

6 Likes

How much does CBN isolate go for per kg?

3 Likes

I’ve seen it posted on here a couple times saying it goes four around 55k a kg

2 Likes

55k last time 4 weeks back a kg

1 Like

Jesus, theres some serious money to be made there right now…

2 Likes

I am wondering about side products in this iodine RxN tho sorta sketchy.

1 Like

No not realy yust rinse well brine wash

3 Likes

Ok so i catch almost all CBN in my tails wich at times has mid 30% CBN
I have been asked many times for sales at 25 K a liter go figure

6 Likes

Have you been able to use this procedure at a large scale? It seems almost too easy to just buy a kg of cbd and turn it into CBN. You would think every lab would just be preparing it themselves rather than buying it for such a high price.

1 Like