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Ketamine crystal recrystallization

triniti

Greenlighter
Joined
Nov 27, 2009
Messages
3
googled recrystallization ketamine crystal , all called for using Pentane/ ether.

Does it mean that ketamine freebase dissolve in Hot diethly ether first , then mix with cold pentane? or the other way round? Then Cool down for crystallization.
If it is a Two-solvent recrystallization, wonder which solvent either Pentane or Ether is ketamine soluble, and which is not ketamine soluble?

Or it meant using mixture of( Pentane and ether ) together, heat up with saturation , and cool down? I doubt this.

Any info for clarification would be much appreciated.
 
No need to recrystallise ket crystal. If you have ket crystal just crush and sniff. Some people recrystallise with water thinking it somehow makes it better but it's just a long-winded way of crushing it and makes no difference. Unless I'm misunderstanding what you are asking which is always possible :D

Also, welcome to BL :)
 
Thanks for reply. Actually, I wanted to understand the chemistry behind Ketamine recrystallization using pentane-ether as ALL googled site suggested , before future experiments, than personal use.

Knowing that need to change the ketamine crystal back to freebase before using pentane-ether recrystallization. But I am confused about the term gooled "recrystallization using Pentane-ether".
I am planning to do some research on ket cryrstallization and recrystallization , espeically want to know the shapes of various type of crystals formed under different conditions.
Hope someone can help, as I dont want to waste too much Ket on experiments before better understanding about the chemistry.
 
Still not sure I quite understand the question cos I'm a chemistry dunce. Sure some of our more chemistry-minded folks will be along with some thoughts soon enough though :)

There's some very pretty pics of ket krystal porn in previous ket threads. Not sure which ones specifically though. Will leave that to one of the more search engine-minded mods. I'm just here to make up the numbers really ;)
 
I'm not sure why you'd need two solvents unless you are getting out impurities. I'd imagine if you have pure ketamine you can dissolve it in warm hexane then precipitate via evaporation
 
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Sorry guys, let me clarify my question, in short, i want to know "How to perform Ketamine recrystallization using Pentane-Ether" or "Hexane-Ether:. before wasting the K on experiments.

Those Two-solvents were listed in all googled sites, if your google " ketamine recrystallization", you will know what i mean.
 
Hmm... you may want to ask in Advanced Drug Discussion but after Googling it kinda looks like you're asking about synthesis. Just so you know, synth discussion is completely prohibited on BL. Apologies if I've misunderstood you again :)
 
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NSFW:
df833b2596.jpg


Too beautiful to languish as a linky <3

EDIT: And too big to post without tags apparently :D
 
I think Ketamine freebase should be Non-Polar Molecule.

So it should easily dissolve in Pentane ( non-polar Solvent).
Partly dissolve in Ether ( part polar Solvent).

So maybe you can dissolve the K freebase in Hot pentane ( solvent A)until saturated. Then add Ether (solvent B) until crystallization. Once cooled, filter, and get your Crystal.

Hope i am correct, just guessing.
 
usually you will make a solvent mixture with the two solvents...lik 1:1 pentane/ether and do the recrystallization with the mix of solvents
I'm not sure what the best ratio would be though
 
I think this is a good question, especially for the countless K users who have complained about cut K, and I wish it would get discussed by the RC users too, since the technology is within everyone's reach. Ketamine is a good candidate for recrystallization because it (the hydrochloride anyway) seems to be very stable. I admit I haven't tried to recrystallize K, nor have I researched its recrystallization, but I have lots of experience with recrystallization in general. For recrystallizing K, I would keep it as the hydrochloride first of all, for both convenience and because it is known to be very stable, and try recrystallizing it from alcohol, which is a good general polar solvent to try. Although alcohol completely free of water is ideal, 95% ethyl alcohol or 91% isopropyl alcohol will usually suffice. If you can, get a small borosilicate (Pyrex) Erlenmeyer flask, maybe off ebay, which is ideal for recrystallizations. While frequently swirling the contents of the flask, heat the ketamine hydrochloride with the alcohol on an electric hot plate, just enough so it simmers, and add little bits of alcohol over time until there is enough to dissolve all the ketamine. Hopefully everything will dissolve. If there is something like table salt present, which will never dissolve, then the solution will have to be poured away from the solid impurity into another flask. Then allow the solution to cool, slowly. After a day, you might be able to increase the amount of crystals by cooling the flask further in a refrigerator or freezer. Once it has sat several hours, pour the solvent into a glass or ceramic bowl to evaporate (or suck it out carefully with a pipette) and leave the flask on its side to dry before scraping out the crystals.

That's pretty much how it works. One nice thing is that, if your compound is stable like it is in this case, you don't really lose any of it (assuming you don't have any "accidents") because it will end up either as the crystals in the flask or as the residue in the bowl after the solvent evaporates. By comparing the color and quality of the residue with the crystals, you can get an idea of the purity of what you started with. If you started with completely pure K, then the crystals and the residue should be identical, except maybe in crystal size.

You may ask, if this is as good as recrystallizing the base, then why do the synthetic procedures use the base? Possible reasons are: the final product from the synthesis may appear as the base, so there is no inconvenience in starting with that form, or that there is only one procedure, copied and reused around the net, and the recrystallization was only experimented with once, so there was no optimization, or maybe recrystallizing the base really is more efficient, either giving greater separation of ketamine from impurities or a larger proportion of the initial ketamine in the final crystals.
 
I think one can crystallize and re-crystallize freebase Ket using "DCM" as alternative solvent , rather pentane-ether mixture.
DCM is good solvent of dissolving freebase impurities in extracting MDA, MDMA etc..

I would IMAGINE scenerio 1) One may dissolve the K impurities freebase in DCM, then wash with water, see whether DCM solvent turn "clear", if DCM turns clear,seperate clear DCM/ unclear impurities Water, discard impure water layer, add con HCL or HCL vapor to DCM layer, clear K salt can be distilled off from DCM and left for evaporation.

Or scenerio 2 : Dissolve K freebase in DCM , wash DCM with Water, but DCM solution remains "unclear", but the water is clear, then use Con HCL acid to extract the DCM, discard the unclear DCM layer, keep the Clear aqueous Acid layer, boil off water , K salt crystal formed after water evaporated.

method used depends whether water can wash off the K freebase impurities in DCM, and only add HCL to the CLEAR layer after washing DCM with water , which i dont know and never tried. Just theories. Maybe some tried and will let us know.
 
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