T5, T41, and Crystal Resistance

Try switching out the t41 for t5 and see if it makes it harder to crash.

@Photon_noir letā€™s hear it

I have the complete opposite problem. Ever since I started running crc everything wants to crash out and fast. Slabs and material from
People that I could make beautiful slabs with now sugar up literally over night.

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Yes, @ExTek90. If one considers my hydrogen bonding theory of cannabinoid crystal growth, the differences between the effects of acids and bases on these compounds should become apparent.

Non-polar solutions do not technically have pH, but the protons (H on COOH group) and the hydroxyl groups (OH) do still retain their relative polarities. Those slight differences in the electron field around those groups relative to the rest of the molecule still exist. The same is true for other acids and bases. The technicality (no pH) lies in the fact that acids and bases do not appreciably dissociate in non-polar solventsā€¦ since pH is actually a measure of the H+ (actually H3O+ in water) ions in solution.

So, what do you think happens to a base (relatively negatively charged OH group) in non-polar solution with a cannabinoid acid (slightly positively charged H on COOH group)?

If you guessed they are attracted to one another, you win! :wink:

Now think about how the relatively positively charged H in a strong acid would interact with a cannabinoid acidā€¦

If you said they repel one another, you win half! :confused:
Notice I did not mention the group in the cannabinoid acid molecule that time. The point is that the cannabinoid acid still has some relatively negatively charged areas around any OH groups other than the COOH. In fact, the net affect of the acid H moieties relative to the entire cannabinoid acid molecule is essentially zero, since it is both weakly repelled by COOH and also weakly attracted by OH.

Going back to base, its negatively charged area is OH. This is where things get tricky. The OH has weak ā€œsubchargesā€ within it, mainly because it is still attached to the rest of the base molecule, just like the OH groups on the cannabinoid. One can think of them as -OH+. In this way, almost all OH groups can all interact with one another! After all, remember the crystallization theory! :wink:
ā€¦-OH+ -OH+ -OH+ -OH+ā€¦

This is likely how bases can ā€œstabilizeā€ CBD in its amorphous stateā€¦ they interact with the OH groups and keep them from forming lattices by getting in the way!

The difficulty in crystallizing CBDa comes from the fact that it has 3 possible OH interactions, 1 of which is the more positive COOH. This interferes with its attempts to structure itself into a regular lattice by its 2 normal OH groups.

Given these ideas, can you guess how a weak acid like C-COOH would interact with the groups on THCa? How about a stronger acid with just the H? Would it affect crystallization?
Now what would a weak base do with THCa? Strong base? Any difference?

Finally, @Kingofthekush420 , the information in this thread all seems to indicate that whatever acids or bases are present in those clays might be soluble in non-polar solvents, even if they do not dissociateā€¦ so the non-polar doesnā€™t have a pH, but the water from doing LLE on that non-polar solution may very well change, since dissociation is a stronger type of dissolution (dissolving power) for fairly polar acids, bases, and salts than non-polar dissolution!

Indeed, a fairly simple test for the presence of acid or base in a non-polar solution is just LLE with a small amount of neutral water, with water pH tested before and after the pass through non-polar solution. However, if you donā€™t care to find out, but are just having issues with crystallization, you can water wash the non-polar solvent to remove any small polar acids or bases!:blush:

By the way, normal clay is generally full of salt ions and (intercalated) water, while treated clays replace those salt ions with acid/base ions. These are pre-dissociated ions, so they have the capacity to interact with cannabinoid acids even easier than dry acid or base would, possibly changing the character of the cannabinoid acid. However, I think a more prominent issue is ā€œfreeā€ acid or baseā€¦ that is, whole acid molecules that can mobilize and escape the clay when it is washed with solvent. The degree of this occurence in a given solvent increases with its polarity like so:
Non-polar < pure alcohol < wet alcohol < water

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Many thanks my good sir!

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Letā€™s say we have a non polar solution (butane and extract).

The solution is mixed into clay. The effect of the ph is minimal.

If that mixture is then wetted (less than 5%) with water or even ethanol, can we expect the ph to change more drastically within the butane solution?

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Wish i completely understood what photon was talking about. Kinda of did though. Maybe, lol

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@Killa12345 , your problem is most likely very fine dust particles from the media. They serve as physical nucleation points and will cause autobuddering super quick. It really helps to use a good depth-filtration medium like cotton or other thick fine fiber matrix, uncompressed, inline after the CRC. You can build one into the CRC, but remember to keep the filter fluffy (put a screen between it and any media above it that might squish it) and tightly sealed against the wall around it, so that no particles can channel around the filter.

@Apothecary36 , No. There is no such thing as pH in a non-polar solvent! The only way to have pH under normal extraction circumstances is for water to be present, and even then, the pH is only in the water. Whether that water is actually dissolved in miniscule quantity, suspended as tiny droplets in emulsion, or a layer of water in contact with the non-polar, the ONLY place pH happens is IN WATER. So if you add 5% water to butane/resin/acid solution from the clay, most of the water will form a layer beneath the butane, and the acid will mostly migrate to it while the resin stays in the butaneā€¦ the water layer will have a pH, while the resin/butane solution does NOT.

The effects I described above are the net effects of rapidly changing interactions between slightly polar solutes (e.g. acids, bases, cannabinoids) dissolved in non-polar solvent. This is completely different situation than pH, which is acid/base dissociation in water.

Dissociation:
Water + acid, base, or salt = cations(+) & anions(-) in water

Dissolution (dissolving):
Non-polar + acid, base, or salt = Non-polar + acid, base, or salt

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Thank you grandmaster @Photon_noir

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Iā€™ve used t5 with best crashing Iā€™ve gotten ever. I had DE bed (went silica ,t5 ,de, papers,)followed by tons papers. 3x plates , 3x drop inā€¦double papers very tight solid ring seals

Took an extra 2-3 weeks ,and was slow AF but it def happened ā€¦and tons of ppl using multiple filters even @indofab profilter are having these issues.

Just trying to throw this out here

Iā€™m almost certain @Killa12345 is much more anal than most when it comes to those filters!

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you would knowā€¦Im pretty positive you hustled me into selling you a prototype of my sintered mesh filter plate.

love ya bro.

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Protonated or not certainly still exists and mirrors the effects of pH without involving water. The different media, interacting with different molecules will inevitably lead to protonation and deprotonation. This is the idea of pH in the absence of water. It is not the same, but very often produces similar effects.

If I was in a different state, I would just run an analytical research lab for this forum. Maybe one day.

My 2Ā¢

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If Ph does not exist without water then why can magsil alter Ph when used as a media in chromatography for PR?

First pass disty thatā€™s dissolved in fresh heptane is about as waterless as you can get, yet it you donā€™t alter your Ph after magsil chromatography youā€™ll make rose.

Ph can still be effected without water, you just canā€™t test for it without water in my experience.

I could be wrong though.

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Lol I have an analytical research lab, what do you need done?

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Does dissociation of salts occur in ethanol or methanol? And would that effect of dissociation be the stronger force of dissolution in methanol like it is in water?

Could I theoretically salt cannabinoids out of a methanol solution?

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what brand of powders are you using sir?

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Test the chemistry of each compound with respect to each different media to start withā€¦

What instruments do you have? I could literally come up with hundreds of things to test. What are my restrictions?

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Hplc, gc-ms, a 25 year old lp-ms, an IR. Only thing we donā€™t have is an NMR.

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Awesome! I know NMRs are going to be difficult, but you should consider a Differential Scanning Calorimeter to test the thermodynamics of the various compounds of interest. You should also look into to a TGA, Thermogravimetric analysis, that you can feed into the GC-MS. Those are both fairly inexpensive new and absolutely affordable used. Iā€™m definitely jealous. The wife and I have considered moving just to open a lab, but we are just prepping to for when we can open one here.

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