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Base -> Citrate?

Sphinx (Afterlife)

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Im chem amateur so uhh.. say one had a chemical as its base dissolved in a solution of water, and one wanted to change that chemical to its citrate (for safer use for harm reduction of course!), whats the procedure? I assume its not hard and doesnt involve any exotic chems?

How do I know how much of whatever to add to solution? Im not asking for exact number but rather how knowing what my chem is and the mg/ml ratio of solution is-is to help me figure out how much citric acid(?) to add?
 
I'm also a chem... journeyman, so to speak. But I think you may have something mistaken here. I was under the impression that the freebase of a chemical is not, in fact, able to be dissolved in water. Although it's possible that some freebases may be able to.

In any case, whether or not the freebase is dissolved or just floating around in the water in tiny particles, the procedure for turning it into its salt form is easy, especially the citrate salt. Get some citric acid, pure crystals is the best and easy to find in a health food store, but also lemon juice would work. Drop it in slowly, stirring the solution. If indeed the freebase is dissolved into solution, then I don't really see why you'd bother converting it to the salt, but I'm not sure if there would be an easy way to tell aside from cheking the PH - a freebase is strongly basic (high PH above 7), while an acidic solution would be below a 7 PH. However, as is most likely the case, the freebase will probably not actually be dissolved but will instead be floating around as free particles. In this case, drop the acid in dropwise, stirring, and as long as the citrate salt of the chemical is soluble in water, you will see those particles start to slowly dissolve into solution. Keep adding acid until it's all dissolved. The good thing about a citrate salt, as opposed to say a hydrochloride salt, is that you're using an acid that is completely safe for human consumption, so if you use too much, you'll just have a strongly sour solution. Putting too much hydrochloric acid in, on the other hand, could be unpleasant.

But please don't take my word on this. I believe I'm correct but I'd like to know myself!
 
Thanks man thats cool, thats why I wanted citrate was cause of its safety vs trying to do a HCl.

What if one wanted a freebase to be fully dissolved in a solvent, which solvent would be ideal for dissolving a freebase into for the purpose of dipping in a cigarette so as to smoke, so a very quick drying, easily accesible (and safe) solvent such as?
 
Diethylethyl ether is gonna be good. It is actually pretty safe as far as organic solvents go but it is highly flammable and also highly volatile. Like all things chemical it does have its booby traps. In the case of ether there is the problem of peroxides.
 
^ A small amount of naphthol or an aromatic amine added to the ether should prevent formation of peroxides. Rumours say copper tunings also work. If the ether is old, or has any yellow tinge to it, before using, it's advised that it be shaken with some added 5-10% FeSO4 solution which will remove any peroxides.

Never keep diethyl ether in a fridge or freezer. Vapours will almost certainly still escape, and can be ignited by the thermostat switching contacts on the refrigerator. In hotter climates, storing ether can be a bit of a problem.
 
Maybe u could just use ethanol? Perhaps that would be more suitable, or isopropyl alcohol.
 
^

ya I was gonna ask that. So Ethanol or Isopropyl should dissolve a freebase?

Theres no way in hell im gonna bother with ether, id rather citrate long before id use that


So say you have freebase dissolved into solution, you dip cigarette, does the active chemical in the solution end up INSIDE the cigarette once the ethanol has evapped off? Or will it just be on the outside?
 
Well that depends how long u soak it for. If u just dip it in and out then there will only be a superficial layer around the outside of the cigarette. If you leave it for longer periods of time the liquid will start to penetrate into the tobacco. Isnt that a bit of an obvious question? I mean maybe this should be moved to DB.
 
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