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Basic Drying to Advanced Compounds

BenzoBay

Bluelighter
Joined
Nov 6, 2007
Messages
81
Greetings,
Excuse my ignorance but I'm new here
I'm looking for so ideas on drying compounds because I doubt my "easy bake oven" will cut it 8)

But any thoughts on homemade to basic/portable units.

We're taking small amounts at a time here so Is a toster oven an option??

Thanks for your time!
-Dutch
 
Airtight container with a big pot of anhydrous magnesium sulphate (formed by heating Epsom salts at 250'C for a couple of hours) will dry just about anything and has the advantage that it can be used for compounds that are heat sensitive (like ring hydroxytryptamines)
 
Sorry, I guess that makes all the difference....

Benzos so we're looking @ 90-122 degrees (35-50C) and we're looking a acurate time frames 12-20 consistant heat

-Dutch
 
Sounds too simple......I Love it!

How do I regulate times and temps. though......trial and error??

Thanks so much guys!

-Dutch
 
You don't, basically. You turn your oven to 500 degrees for 2 hours and cook the epsom salt.

Then, put whatever needs drying in an airtight container for a day with the anhydrous mg sulfate (keep them seperate!)

Pretty simple.

Hammilton
 
Yeah basically just get that MgSO4 as hot as you can get it in a oven to dry it, then keep it in a very airtight container for use. Warning, if this is mixed with water suddenly it will get VERY hot as the MgSO4 gets hydrated...
 
Your guys are Great!

Looks like the no actual heat involved, rather a chemical reaction.

Best part is it drastically speeds up the process and removes moisture and the same time.

Are we on the same page??

-Dutch
 
Correct, the anhydrous MgSO4 just likes to have water in it a lot more than whatever it is that you're drying (benzos, in this case), it even likes water more than the surrounding air, so it will suck all the water out it's surroundings.
So yeah, no heat involved other than in forming the anhydrous MgSO4 in the first place.
The actual drying of your target product involves no heat at all.
 
THANKS AGIAN!!

now only if we were allowed to post sources to get products like that

8) Dutch
 
Epsom salts are available everywhere (a pharmacy/chemist) others have used calcium chloride which I think sells as Dry Rite or something in the USA and if absolutely stuck (but not as effective) plain old salt can be used as a drying agent...
 
^ Sodium chloride does not have a hydrated crystalline form (water of crystallization), so will not work for drying chems. Salt works on biological products by causing an osmotic imbalance, which is a different mechanism alltogether.

Other water of crystallization salts that are sort of suitable to some degree

Calcium sulphate (gypsum/plaster of Paris) - works but is very slow and not much use

Calcium chloride - as mentioned, used as a room dehumidifier

Copper sulphate - adding the anhydrous form to water is a very exothermic reaction.

Also suitable are conc sulphuric acid (extremely efficient but problematic due to being liquid & highly corrosive) and sodium hydroxide (see problems of sulphuric acid as it will absorb enough water to become a very conc. soln. It also removes any CO2 from the atmosphere as well, if desired)
 
Its cool!

I finally found a great source for inactive ingredients and supplies.

-Dutch
 
Sodium chloride does not have a hydrated crystalline form (water of crystallization), so will not work for drying chems.

Really? I've used it to dry organic layers from aqueous extractions before, when out of sodium sulphate. Works fine. Also salt left out in the air seems to get all clumpy and uh moist doesnt it? But then NaCl IR plates dont dissolve or even show big OH stretches when you dont store them with dessicant.
 
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