I mostly finished my pulls last night, a bit more left to do but I had some naptha+dmt reduced to half a cup or so. I poured it into an aluminium take-away tray which I'd flattened out a bit then bent into more of a cup shape so it would sit in the pan of warm water to give off the naptha and leave me some goo.

This morning I see water in the naptha, a black ring around the interior wall and my heart sink. I lifted out the aluminium and tipped it's contents into a jar then added most of the pan contents. So I now have a jar of cold water with a thin layer on top. It's not a lot, I can afford to throw it away but I'm greedy . My question is where did the black come from?

Flattening out the take-away tray and holding up to the window I see half a dozen pin holes, I'm guessing are stress fractures where it's creased, but none of it looks corroded, it's all shiny except for this black ring which doesn't wipe off, doesn't scrape with fingernail... its' kind of anodised.

Has water come up through the holes, drawn NaOh down out of the naptha and stained it? Bear in mind there's no blackness in the bottom, rather at the meniscus or layer separation mark. If there's NaOh in any my pulls, I might have done myself a favour here. Ordinarily I would expect giving of naptha from a pull in an aluminium tray to be ok for a small test amount.

Never use aluminum !!!

I think you should read the FAQ section and or dmt handbook !!

I think I can forgive myself for using it at this stage if it indicates there's NaOh in my naptha pull. but yes you're right.

Hang on a tick , I'm a little lost , you put the naphtha saturated with DMT into a aluminum cup I understand that but but it was a major mistake but I can't understand why you put it in a warm water bath instead of a freeze precipe to recover what's in the
naps !!

How was it a major mistake if neither naptha nor dmt react with Al? My question is, does this prove there's NaOh in my pull?

I don't intentionally put NaOh with Al.
I didn't freeze because, as you quoted "to give off the naptha and leave me some goo".

1. I like goo
2. I don't like naptha vapours tainting my freezer
3. I haven't found a suitable way of sealing a precip tray. Cling film/saran wrap doesn't cut it for me no matter how much I wrap it in. It might be different since I've altered the setting to make my freezer colder, the wrap might be more effective, I haven't tested that yet. I was planning on trying at some point with some of this batch after I'd used some of the batch to make goo with.

I just want to know if NaOh could have caused the blackening of the Al. If it did, then I know I have some in my pull and I'm more unhappy about that than having used Al because then it's been a litmus.
I might be wrong, but to my uneducated mind... there's every chance it could have.

There you answered ya own question !



Touchy touchy down fang ! If you ask for advice don't get offended by the comments ! I can think of someone else who use to do this !



Also you quoted this not me !!

dude,please be constructive. I really cba with this.

These are the things that come to my mind:

1.) shouldn't have used aluminum.

2.) your use of aluminum makes it harder to find out if you have lye in your solution.

3.) unless you pulled up some base soup when siphoning/decanting, and hadn't performed any washes, you probably didn't have any lye in your nps.

4.) I think the black ring is the product of aluminum and naphtha.

5.) don't use aluminum in the future.


^ search 'pyrex dish with lid'.

Sorry I can't help you find out if there's lye. Usually the answer is just to go ahead and perform another wash or series of washes.

Personally, I'd be afraid of whatever the product of that aluminum reaction would be. Surely, you've read in countless teks and advice threads not to use aluminum? Even though it was a small amount and you thought the effect would be negligible, I still don't understand.

Good luck

Aluminum Oxide.. the blackening of aluminum.

if you're concerned that your product is tainted, dissolve it in dilute acid, basify it again to pH 12-13, and pull with naphtha.
also consider getting some epsom salts, so you can 'dry' your naphtha layer. that will absorb any residual basic water.

I know bleach will blacken silver, and vinegar, baking soda will not. Why not mix some NaOh with h2o and test this. It could be a simple test that we could all use. I might have time later today.

bty, I use these http://www.crateandbarre...ge-container-set/s172483 glass storage container (they have the right kind of plastic lids). I wrap them in foil put inside a ziplock bag with a paper towel just incase they drip. This works well and i feel totally safe about it.

Ok fair enough , what do you're abbreviations mean & if you're freezer is cold enough to freeze water solid it's cold enough also you can leave it in longer if you're a little unsure
about it !
Also if you're freezer is self defrosting it will rid itself from fumes within a hour or two of removing precipe dish !

When I freeze mine I usually put the dish on something like little blocks of some kind to keep the dish from sitting directly on anything in the freezer !

Any super market sells Pyrex dishes with lids but if you have a lid and still don't trust it try wrapping the dish before and after placing the lid on !

And just proceed with a mini ab to rid you're naps with water and any other nasties you may think are in there !

I hope this is a little more helpful then the other msg , sorry if I was being unconstuctive ! Hope you can fix you're current problem !

Thanks everyone. I'll look into dishes like those. Only ones I'd found had glass lids... not much of a seal with those.