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Can a Freebase be Crystalline?

IndoleDreamStudies

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I recently saw some 5-MeO-DMT that made me a bit confused. The company who sold it identified it as "freebase". Visually, the sample consists of light yellow-colored 'shards' of various sizes... mostly small, but fairly solid chunks. The last sample of 5MD freebase I came upon was fine white powder, which is how I usually assume freebases should look.

Is it possible for a freebase to be crystalline, or to form into solid pieces that look like crystals? Should this be taken as a clue that the substance might be hydrochloride form, and thus perhaps less suitable for vaporization? Or is there so much variance in the appearance of different batches that one couldn't tell by looking?
 
Ofcourse, a single chemical can not define what all alkaloids/compounds in their free base form should look like.

Different compounds have different structures, these structures may stack up on each other (interact with each other) in unique ways to form very different crystal structures.
 
IndoleDreamStudies said:
I recently saw some 5-MeO-DMT that made me a bit confused. The company who sold it identified it as "freebase". Visually, the sample consists of light yellow-colored 'shards' of various sizes... mostly small, but fairly solid chunks. The last sample of 5MD freebase I came upon was fine white powder, which is how I usually assume freebases should look.

Is it possible for a freebase to be crystalline, or to form into solid pieces that look like crystals? Should this be taken as a clue that the substance might be hydrochloride form, and thus perhaps less suitable for vaporization? Or is there so much variance in the appearance of different batches that one couldn't tell by looking?


Who is to say that the powder wasn't crystaline? Cocaine is often a powder, yet crystaline. Metals are often powdered yet crystaline (though different than organic crystals)
 
johnm214 said:
Who is to say that the powder wasn't crystaline? Cocaine is often a powder, yet crystaline. Metals are often powdered yet crystaline (though different than organic crystals)

Good point. I'm starting to realize crystals can be any size, I'm not sure what about the particular appearance of these made me think Hcl. I suppose it would be better to test the pH and BP to confirm it rather than judging the appearance anyway.

Sorry if the question was foolish, it's just surprising the difference of appearance there can be between two synths.
 
Lets just hope he never attempts to replicate the original discovery of fluorine=D

Freebases can be crystalline, I smoked some DMT base the other day, that was crystalline, it depends on the individual compound though, some such as methphet base, or mescaline, are oils, others, including some tryptamines, are solid.
 
I had some 5-MeO-DMT freebase once that was yellow-ish rounded chunks.
 
I may be mistaken but i believe I've heard that anything can be crystallized, but for many things it's very hard to do and very hard to maintain (such as the earlier mentioned oils, eg amphetamine freebase)
 
If temperatures/pressures were changed accordingly, yes almost anything can become crystalline.
 
Adrenochrome said:
I may be mistaken but i believe I've heard that anything can be crystallized, but for many things it's very hard to do and very hard to maintain (such as the earlier mentioned oils, eg amphetamine freebase)

They say it possibly rains diamonds on Uranus too, but in practical terms here on earth some things are oils and some things are solids. Methamphetamine base that has been carefully fractionally distilled is still a clear oily liquid that will not crystallize at 0C.

For 5-Meo-DMT freebase on the other hand, MP= 69-70C.
 
retired_chemist said:
They say it possibly rains diamonds on Uranus too, but in practical terms here on earth some things are oils and some things are solids. Methamphetamine base that has been carefully fractionally distilled is still a clear oily liquid that will not crystallize at 0C.

For 5-Meo-DMT freebase on the other hand, MP= 69-70C.

Thanks for the info, hmmmm...
as an aside are you serious about this raining diamond thing? how amazing
 
Yes, but you can crystalize meth base by increasing the pressure and decreasing the temperature accordingly.
 
Sorry if this is dumb question but on the subject of crystallization I have been wondering.

When a substance crystallizes and it always grows in to the same structure where is the blueprint for this structure? The blueprint of the compound ?

I hope this is not to far off subject, I have just been wondering about this lately.
 
I believe its a corollary of the differential electrostatic densities of the compound.. (as an aside check out the wiki for 'Brownian tree'[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brownian_tree], it has some cool pics! :)),

(and the system [sorry i donno if this is the right use of the physical term system,{i'm a biologist} what i mean here is environment] most likely effects how well the recrystallization fits the, as u say, 'blueprint')
 
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squerll said:
Sorry if this is dumb question but on the subject of crystallization I have been wondering.

When a substance crystallizes and it always grows in to the same structure where is the blueprint for this structure? The blueprint of the compound ?

I hope this is not to far off subject, I have just been wondering about this lately.

And a compound can crystalllize in different polymorphs meaning you can get needles or rhombes of the very same compound,just depending of the crystallisation conditions.Just to say that there exists different blueprints =D
 
I wish it rained diamonds in my anus now and then, just take a load of fiber and crap through a colander and there comes your drug money=D

Apparently there is a diamond the size of a small moon a few hundred light years off from here, formed by the collapse of a star, whats a few lightyears and some chilly weather between there and manchester...
 
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