Hello nexians


I have read that using naphta with plastic can lead to get some plastic in the final product.
I have also read that lye can broke the glass and also lead to impurties.

I usually work my stb in one bottle, what is the best to use ?

glass all the way

and if you're really concerned about the glass breaking, use quality lab glass

Definatley avoid using plastics. I just use thick glass jars if lab glass is unavailable

Although not absolutely essential, glass generally comes in the form of better shaped vessels (I like bottles with a narrow neck) for extractions. There should be nothing wrong with using HDPE plastic though if just using lye and naphtha and if you can get it in a suitable shape.

I wouldn't want to let naphtha sit in a non-HDPE plastic container for longer than a few minutes, but chances are it's not going to hurt much, especially if you are freeze-precipitating. If you're evaporating solvents I would avoid plastic. Naphtha isn't as strong a solvent as acetone, etc.

Glass is definitely preferable, and the reaction of NaOH with glass is nothing to worry about unless you let the base solution sit for years. None of the sodium silicate formed will migrate into the naphtha anyway.

Glass all the way. HDPE plastic if any plastic, but still safer to use glass whenever possible and even safer yet to use borosilicate glass (like Pyrex) if you can. NAPHTHA most likely won't degrade plastic unless it sits in it for a while. I use HDPE jars for freeze-precipitation as the crystals don't stick to it like they do glass. Acetone and other stronger solvents WILL most definitely eat through plastic. I know from experience, when I was a novice and I foolishly used a plastic pipette for an extraction involving acetone and it melted the darn thing into goo, ruining my extraction. Mason jars seem to be a popular way to go, although they have a rubber seal on the lid so if NAPHTHA sits against it for a while it could begin to degrade the rubber. Acetone will melt the rubber seal very quickly. I haven't ever heard of lye breaking a glass vessel, other than when it was added too rapidly and it broke from the drastic temperature change.

As the others have said, I've found naptha/shellite to not be too bad in plastic, and have kept it in plastic bottles for a few days without problems. Xylene however is a completely different matter, and burnt through a plastic bottle in under an hour once.

Entheogenerator, you just made me check the plastic pipette I used not even an hour ago to decant xylene. What in God's name was I thinking, it too has formed a rubbery, melted-ish goo. /facepalm

Glass for sure.

Yes it's true that lye can eventually etch glass. Silicon dioxide in glass reacts with sodium hydroxide to form sodium silicate. But this is not by any means a fast reaction, specially with good thick glass. And no need to worry about sodium silicate being in your final product because it is very polar, it will never move to the non-polar solvent.

Personally it has never happened to me to have glass breaking due to it, and I've been extracting for many years using glass only. When I hear about people having glass breaking when using lye to extract, i think it is mostly not due to lye etching glass but due to people adding lye too fast to water and not stirring, so as lye dissolves in water and releases heat, the fast change of temperature of the lye beads on the bottom of the container can make glass break. This is about temperature change, not a reaction with glass, and it can be easily prevented by adding lye slowly and stirring well.

I wouldn't store a very concentrated lye solution in cheap glass for months, but I have done it for a week or two with no noticeable effects. Better if you do your work within a week, and then discard the lye solution. Also working with A/B is better than STB in this sense because you won't need so much lye and therefore will risk less.

In any case, it is always recommended that you work over a sink or bathtub or large plastic container to prevent any dangerous spills if something breaks (which it shouldn't).


As for plastic, the problem is that phthalates or other substances like bisphenol A that are commonly used in plastic production (and have negative health effects) can leech into your final product since most are soluble in non-polar solvents. Please read the two threads linked here: https://wiki.dmt-nexus.m...use_for_my_extraction.3F

And for those claiming it's 'ok' to use plastic just because you haven't seen a macroscopic change, let me remind you that your eyes are not precise analytic instruments, and you can still have plastic or plasticizers leech into your final product even if you don't see anything. If you insist on working with plastic, I strongly suggest you do both sodium carb washes to your solvent as well as a FASA + acetone wash step (and then conversion to freebase if wanted) to help removing possible traces of those plasticizers.

Glass.

More specifically, borosillicate lab glass with gong caps/lids/etc.

Use some of that silicone sealant made for the joints, and for good measure, have a hdpe milk jug/container to catch the liquid in the unlikely event the glass breaks.

IMHO, thats prob the best way to go about it.

You can get a borosillicate beaker with a gong top/cap for under $20 on ebay, and the silicone sealant is fairly cheap as well. A hdpe container you can prob re-use for free from something lying around the kitchen.

Always good to have a 2nd containment when you use glass though. And hdpe will not get eaten up like most other plastics would. I wound not however, use it as my main extraction vessel.