With regard's to the washing of the MDMA powder being necessary, If not washed you say there maybe soluble impurities and some of the impurities from the synth, Will any of this then be dangerous in consuming the MDMA? I'm really quite keen to try and seperate MDMA out of pill and consuming it after reading all of this.
Apart from the hopefully benign ingredients used to formulate the tablet, the impurities in a tablet are those present in the MDMA itself. They are left overs, side reaction substances or solvents used in the manufacturing process. In higher grade MDMA, there may be relatively few impurities that together only form a very small percentage of the MDMA weight. In shitty quality stuff, these may form 10% or more of the total MDMA weight.
If the MDMA going into a tablet contains these impurities, then along with the MDMA, binders and excipients, it's obvious that these impurities are also consumed when one consumes the pill.
Solubility
Everything has some degree of solubility in water, as everything does in different solvents. This can be and is often very low e.g. MDMA HC
l salt in a non-polar solvent like acetone or freebase MDMA in water. In these examples, very little will dissolve in the solvent but some small amount does. This is also temperature and pressure related.
So when a water extraction is performed on a water soluble compound mixed with other compounds that are termed "insoluble", although most of the insoluble impurities will be removed (will stay in the filter), a very small amount of those insolubles actually dissolves and passes through with the water soluble compound being purified.
Likewise, if there are many actives present, or highly soluble impurities from the synthesis, these too - in significantly larger amounts - will also dissolve and therefore also pass through with the MDMA. But by doing multiple recrystallisations, levels of impurities can often be reduced to an almost insignificant level.
Most primary and secondary amines facilitate purification because they can exist in either a protonated form (salts) and a non-protonated (freebase) form, both of which as explained have very different solubility characteristics. Chemists make use of this handy fact when attempting to purify amines.
Washing with a solvent like acetone will remove some of these water insolubles, but to do the job properly you need to either know what these impurities are and therefore design a suitable solvent system, or have a lot of disposable product available from which you can make a very pure sample through trial and error. A good range of solvents is also often required. However, understanding how mixed solvents work can minimise this considerably.
Chromatography
Sometimes when a mixture of amines contains compounds that are chemically quite similar, such as methamphetamine and MDMA, the solubilities in a range of solvents is also similar, making separation virtually impossible using crystallisation alone. In this situation, use can be made of their respective charge/ mass ratios and a chromatographic method is often employed. Whether it's gas chromatography (GC), high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), elution or column chromatography, or Thin layer Chromatography (TLC), the theory is essentially the same.
If, say, column chromatography is employed (a simpler form requiring less specialised equipment) the amine freebase is dissolved in a mobile phase (solvent or multiple solvents) which is then passed through a stationary phase (column) often comprising of a glass tube packed with alumina or silica. Normally the system is under pressure. The relative affinities of the different substances in the mixture for either of the two phases, means one passes through faster than the other. As can be seen, designing suitable mobile and stationary phases constitutes a little bit more than a simple acetone wash. (I should add that while many of the solvents are inexpensive when purchased in quantity, the silica is expensive)
And that's what's awkward about doing a complete separation at home or in any non-approved setting. Having lots of solvents, columns, separating funnels, evaporation dishes etc around the house starts to look more like production than a Harm Reduction attempt. While your intention may be simply to clean up something, if that something is a mix of similarly structured compounds, the techniques required become much more involved. The criminal charges you might face should you get caught may end up being far worse for your general wellbeing than the risks posed by the original impurities [?]
The Dry Acetone Wash
But appreciating that many people are concerned for their health, as was earlier explained, there's a good chance that in pills that have been both reagent tested,
and are considered by experienced users to contain only MDMA, then in most instances it should be fairly easy to isolate and purify the active ingredient to some degree.
As to the importance of an acetone wash; considering that much MDMA powder that's reported here is described as brown and inconsistent in colour and/ or strongly smelling of safrole, then an acetone wash might be very desirable. As mentioned, a more sophisticated approach to washing is to use multiple solvent mixtures. The basics have been mentioned on these boards before.
The main thing to remember with any of this, is that every wash, no matter how carefully it is done, will lose some amount of product - be it small with an optimised setup.
Sorry if this is a stupid question but I couldn't get a clear answer through google: what exactly is 'dry' acetone? I have a big can of acetone on my desk but it is a liquid (it says "100% acetone 1090"). Is dry acetone a powder or something?
On a more passing note, why exactly is dry acetone necessary?
Dry acetone is necessary in the above process because MDMA HC
l (an acid salt) is soluble in water. Acetone is a liquid, dry or not. It's just that it will absorb a small amount of water over time. As mentioned, washing the crystal with wet acetone will result in more of the MDMA dissolving in the acetone. In other words, you'll lose more product.
BTW, this should only be done with high purity acetone. Paint thinners or nail polish remover are not good enough.
What is something I can use that sugar wont dissolve in, but mdma will? That way I can filter it again and be left with MDMA.
Firstly, have you tasted it to confirm it's sweet? If you're sure it's sugar or glucose, then you should find it can be separated using alcohol. Methanol or ethanol would be best, but Isopropanol
should work. Note that MCC (microcrystalline cellulose) while not really soluble in water, does disperse well in water. Therefore, if it's present it needs to be left standing in the MDMA /water solution and hopefully it should fall out of solution over time. Centrifuging would be another option.
Assuming it's a simple sugar; the key would be to use a minimum of alcohol. The sugar is less soluble in the alcohol, so you could try cooling the alcohol and repeating the exercise. Normally, if that didn't work, then the freebase would be prepared and extracted with diethyl ether or a similar solvent. This would then be washed with distilled water, and recrystallised with HC
l gas or acid (pool acid). The crystals would be best formed by dissolving the salt in a mixture of isopropanol/diethyl ether, or isopropanol/
n-hexane. As the solvent evaporates the crystals will form.
Comments of a Deterrent Nature
I'm not sure this has been a very clear easy to follow post. Regardless, I feel I should once again mention the potential for such operations to viewed as manufacturing. It's hard to see where the line is drawn, both for the cleaning person, and for any law enforcement officers that might come knocking during the operation. In this light, one has to ask whether it's worthwhile or not.
Personally speaking, I don't believe it is worthwhile, but then again I don't have drugs in my house either, or even take them much any more, and I certainly never perform any such procedure on any illicit compound. Think carefully before deciding it's worthwhile. Perhaps a better alternative is to find a better dealer, a trustworthy one, or one that sells clean, odourless MDMA powder.....'mmm'... I can hear you say, 'easier said than done...'