3.5ph is what my etho is at currently. 6x 5gallon buckets worth.
MgO is supposed to be good for this- if you want I can send you some various hydroxides to try
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Yes sir! Iām game. I have about 3 weeks until I make another wash, and spd run
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Is there a problem with using HCL, sodium hydrochloride, or ammonium chloride? Why is citric acid , MgO and baking soda recommended? Specifically for hexane washing. Thanks
I could be wrong. But I think itās just because theyāre readily available and they kinda saturate at ideal pH ranges (citric only goes down to 3, baking soda to 10). I think the acid/base chemistry is totally workable with Any acid or base though.
I wanted to switch to acetic acid for my low pH. Iāve found the citric acid readily likes to make emulsions
I have strong solutions of the first 3 I mentioned on hand, is why I ask. My concern would be unwanted reaction s or unwanted chemicals being left in the product. My thought was less of a strong acid would affect the product less than more of a weaker acid/base
Strong bases can react with your acidic cannabinoids and turn them water soluble. So be wary of that for sure.
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That was the idea actually, I was going to see if I could partially remove the THC, before I crystallize following a post I saw here. Trying to make compliant Vapes in NC
Itāll react with any acidic cannabinoid. I would assume Iām an equal fashion? I suppose itās easier to crystalize the thc-a than the cbd-a though.
Maybe create some conditions where the thc-a is crystalizing and the cbd-a is just starting to?
Well itās all decarbed, I read CBD crystallizes much easier than cbda
Hi, Iām not 100% sure on the solubility of the decarbed cananbanoids. Maybe @Future or @Photon_noir would have a better idea. I think theyāve both done a similar technique? Or at least some real hard pH swings.
Filter through baking soda to neutralize it and in my experience rotoing before winterizing makes the gats smaller and they dont coagulate as good . You can order a .45micron screen and just make a double side kf25 with that sandwiched between and have it inline of your filtering
Not sure what the goal here is, but I generally avoid altering the pH of cannabinoid solutions without a very clear goal in mindā¦
The reason MgO is suggested varies from purpose to purpose.
Citric acid makes for some funky emulsions when salted, especially sodium citrate. One reason to avoid neutralizing it with baking soda. I cannot be certain, since I havenāt tried it, but using a divalent cation like MgĀ²+ or CaĀ²+ may help reduce the citrateās tendency to support emulsions.
Dunno if that helps?
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I think the person above was trying to potentially crystalize CBD with acid base? And was wondering if a high pH then neutralizing would precipitate CBD crystal? But I might be off base (pun intended?)
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Oh hey, I think that was me. Iām going to attempt a hexane salt wash first to try to increase purity, I donāt have spd. Then move on to attempt my first crystals, Iām going to try acetone, heptane and Pentane separately and see what I like best. Itās my first time with either of these procedures.
Iām unsure of optimal temperatures and pH for the wash. I read it may be possible to decrease THC in the right conditions. Iām not expecting this to be very effective, but if it helps a little Iāll try. I want to make THC compliant Vapes with a nice full spectrum of cannabinoids. My extract is 62:2:68 CBD:THC:total. Also still wondering which acids and bases are best. Looks like MgO is most recommend. I wanted to use sodium hydroxide and hydrochloric acid just because I thought smaller amounts would be needed and contaminate the product less, but I really donāt know. Appreciate the pointers!
Hah! @tweedledew Good pun! 
So are you trying to purify THCa or remove it from CBD, @CCCBD? My mind slipped back and forth on what you wrote, as if even you do not have a clear goal in mind! Using acid/base/salt neutralization type chemistry is not helpful to separate two practically equivalent (pun intended for you chemists, @tweedledew 
) cannabinoid acids. CBDa will neutralize with a base the same way THCa does. So again, what is your actual goal???
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My logic was to crystallize/isolate CBD then mix a small amount of the full spectrum starting material back into the CBD to make something with a broader spectrum. Cbg and cbc are also at 2% each in my extract. So basically cut it with crystals to get THC under .3%.
And for the hexane wash, I expect that to increase purity and possibly maybe wash away some of the unwanted thcās if the pH and temperature are condusive for that.
all decarboxylated to begin with.
Iām not a chemist, but I think it has something to do with isoelectric point. When pH is greater than 10.5 the thca is slightly water soluble? But I did just realize Iām not sure if this procedure is practical with THC or only thca
Isoelectric point
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The isoelectric point ( pI , pH(I) , IEP ), is the pH at which a molecule carries no net electrical charge or is electrically neutral in the statistical mean. The standard nomenclature to represent the isoelectric point is pH(I),[1] although pI is also commonly seen,[2] and is used in this article for brevity. The net charge on the molecule is affected by pH of its surrounding environment and can become more positively or negatively charged due to the gain or loss, respectively, of protons (H+).
Surfaces naturally charge to form a double layer. In the common case when the surface charge-determining ions are H+/OHā, the net surface charge is affected by the pH of the liquid in which the solid is submerged.
The pI value can affect the solubility of a molecule at a given pH. Such molecules have minimum solubility in water or salt solutions at the pH that corresponds to their pI and often precipitate out of solution. Biological amphoteric molecules such as proteins contain both acidic and basic functional groups. Amino acids that make up proteins may be positive, negative, neutral, or polar in nature, and together give a protein its overall charge. At a pH below their pI, proteins carry a net positive charge; above their pI they carry a net negative charge. Proteins can, thus, be separated by net charge in a polyacrylamide gel using either preparative gel electrophoresis, which uses a constant pH to separate proteins or isoelectric focusing, which uses a pH gradient to separate proteins. Isoelectric focusing is also the first step in 2-D gel polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis.
Ah, okay. Well, to answer the first part, yes, you can always dilute your mixture to have less than 0.3% THCā¦ The problem comes from the fact that CBD concentrations over about 63-67% tend to autocrystallize, giving high CBD distillate (amorphous semi-solid) a rather ephemeral existence, unless it is somehow stabilized in this form by the presence of other cannabinoids or molecules that interfere significantly with crystallization.
As for separations, if you start with everything decarboxylated, you are correct that no a/b chemistry can really take place. Isoelectric points for non-polar compounds are not exactly a thing, at least not until you are dealing with larger particles (blobs of many molecules) of them in emulsion with a more polar solvent. Then itās a matter of zeta potential, colloidal suspension, and that sort of nanochemistry. Itās a fun and infernally frustrating area of study when limited by restrictions on chemicals (e.g. consumer safety), but it is very important in drug chemistry formulations.
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Well, I still havenāt done anything yet, Iāve got 62%cbd, do you think dissolving in hexane and funnelling with salt saturated water will increase purity of CBD significant ly, Or would you skip that and go straight to an isolation solvent? I have a cheap homogenizer that spins 20,000 rpm, I was thinking I would need it to mix crystals into anything, maybe some dilution would be in order to help stabilize as well?
Hmmā¦ 62% seems really low. Is that crude or distillate? What other cannabinoid concentrations are present?
I wouldnāt try isolation until around 70% CBD, normally, but even that can be a bit too low, depending on what else is present. Hexane is an isolation solvent, so you could wash it with brine if you want, and then isolate after separating the hexane out (do NOT isolate inside the sep funnel!)ā¦ but unless it is crude and you use some acid wash, first, (then base back to normal) before using brine wash, I donāt think it will help much.
I wouldnāt really need the homogenizer until/unless doing formulations.