I recently performed an acid base extraction on 4 grams of coke. After freebasing it with ammonia, the weight was 1.2 grams. Ok, my coke isnt the greatest, but i proceeded. After turning it back into cocaine hcl, the weight aas only 0.6 grams! If anything, the weight should go up because i am adding hcl molecules. Please take a look at what i did and tell me where i went wrong:
When turning the cocaine base into cocaine hcl, i dissolved the 1.2 grams into 18 mL of acetone (the purity of the acetone was 99.5%). In a seperate beaker, i dissolved 0.3 mL of 31.45% pure hydrochloric acid into 0.6 mL of 99.9% pure methanol. While swirling both beakers, i poured the hcl/methanol mix into th
e base/acetone solution. I then let it sit for about 4 hours to allow crystallization. I then uncovered the beaker, scratched the inside of the beaker and stirred a bit to allow more crystallization. At this point, I let it sit for about 4 more hours. When i uncovered the beaker again, there was no more liquid inside. I am guessing that it evaporated.
Note that the ratios i used were 15 mL of acetone per gram of cocaine base and 00.25 mL of hcl acid per 0.5 mL of methanol per gram of cocaine base
Please note that i also performed a standard acetone wash at the very end to get rid of any excess hcl that was on the coke
One second thought, I think I know why this happened and I think it is my fault. The acetone was only 99.5% pure. I used about 50 mL of acetone in the entire process, which means there was about 0.25 mL of water used. This is very bad, considering that cocaine hcl is soluble in about .4 mL of water.
Also, from reading previous threads on acid-base extractions, I should have used a hydrochloric acid that was >= 35% pure. The difference between 35% and 31.45% pure is great when we're talking about a product that is extremely sensitive to water.
But I still ask, are these two reasons the most likely reason why I lost product or was there a mistake in the actual process that I made?
When turning the cocaine base into cocaine hcl, i dissolved the 1.2 grams into 18 mL of acetone (the purity of the acetone was 99.5%). In a seperate beaker, i dissolved 0.3 mL of 31.45% pure hydrochloric acid into 0.6 mL of 99.9% pure methanol. While swirling both beakers, i poured the hcl/methanol mix into th
e base/acetone solution. I then let it sit for about 4 hours to allow crystallization. I then uncovered the beaker, scratched the inside of the beaker and stirred a bit to allow more crystallization. At this point, I let it sit for about 4 more hours. When i uncovered the beaker again, there was no more liquid inside. I am guessing that it evaporated.
Note that the ratios i used were 15 mL of acetone per gram of cocaine base and 00.25 mL of hcl acid per 0.5 mL of methanol per gram of cocaine base
Please note that i also performed a standard acetone wash at the very end to get rid of any excess hcl that was on the coke
One second thought, I think I know why this happened and I think it is my fault. The acetone was only 99.5% pure. I used about 50 mL of acetone in the entire process, which means there was about 0.25 mL of water used. This is very bad, considering that cocaine hcl is soluble in about .4 mL of water.
Also, from reading previous threads on acid-base extractions, I should have used a hydrochloric acid that was >= 35% pure. The difference between 35% and 31.45% pure is great when we're talking about a product that is extremely sensitive to water.
But I still ask, are these two reasons the most likely reason why I lost product or was there a mistake in the actual process that I made?