Hello, I have a basic chemistry/extraction question.

I am reading this tek:
https://www.dmt-nexus.me...spx?g=posts&t=23814

My basic understanding is combine water, lye, plant matter, & naphtha. The water extracts the alkaloid from the plant matter, and the lye dissolved in the water makes it freebases it out, and the freebase is soluble in the naphtha so it dissolves there. You seperate the water & naphtha and freeze precip alkaloid out. That's the extraction I am familiar with. However, I have seen people saying they get better yields if they also wash with sodium carbonate.

Questions:

1. My thoughts are, sodium carbonate is just a base, so why would using sodium carbonate to wash be any different than using lye?

2. Also can anyone can tell my why freezing naphtha/lowering its temperature makes the alkaloids precipitate out?

Thanks in advance

a 5% sodium carb/bicarb wash is used to wash any polar components, including basic water, out of a nonpolar solution.
alternatively, one may pour the nonpolar solution over a thin layer of magnesium sulfate (epsom salt) to dry it.

freezing the naphtha exceeds the solubility of alkaloids in it, allowing crystallization to occur.

Was just about to say this, Benzyme beat me to it. Sodium carbonate is used, as far as I know, because it has a high pH so you don't risk losing too much spice(if you reduce pH too much the spice will become soluble in water again). But also it is relatively "food safe" I believe, unlike lye (sodium hydroxide) which is very toxic. It remove any trace amounts of lye in the solution.

Looking at your post count, I can forgive this. But do recognize that there was a thread (now in page 2) that you had an answer to your question. It's discouraging to the people that take time out of their days to educate the members here only to be so blatantly ignored.

I don't mean to sound hard, you're new here after all. But do keep this in the back of your mind

Welcome aboard,
-1ce

how crucial is the concentration ? I have been using sodium carb washes on my veg oil extractions. I usually mix up a tablespoon of sodium carb to 1 litre of water and then use a portion of this after each pull. I use a sep funnel for mixing and I give the mix a rinse once i let out as much of the dirty sodium carb water that i can. I rinse because after the wash, I salt out the dmt with vinegar and i don't want the vinegar reacting with any sodium carb that might be left over. I am not able to measure my yields because I end up with a liquid solution in the end. The sodium carb wash helps to remove a lot of stuff when using veg oil though, so i consider it essential if I am trying to get the end product as pure as possible. But because i can't really measure the yields i have no idea if i am losing anything or not. What i get out is usually pretty decent though, in terms of the number of doses i end up with.

My understanding of sodium carb washing is that you can't really lose anything, because the freebase dmt is more attracted to the non polar solvent than water (regardless of how basic the water is), else it wouldn't have migrated to the NPS in the first place. Am i wrong in thinking this ?

no, you're correct.
5% is just a standard conc. wash for typical organic chem procedures