Actually I think that was a mistake, I should have left it alone. The large crystals were already there, no need for myriads of tiny crystals crashing out!

Cooling down very very slowly and gradually would be best. Evaporation leads to slow oxidation indeed, I think I waited a few days too long with pouring off the liquid. The microscope slide I made perhaps a month ago is now completely brown and degraded.

Next time I'll put the container with naphta inside a large pan with room temp sunflower oil and put that in the fridge and after a day into the freezer, hopefully that large buffer will slow down the cooling enough. That's worth a shot!
And I'll try to fix a well shaped crystal from this batch to a thread and attempt to grow it larger.
Thanks for the feedback, cheers

WS: those xtals look amazing. bravo! did you come up with a better storage plan?

tryp: great work. i have dreams of one day forming a crystal the size of a golf ball. so how many xtals ended up making 50 mg (on average)?

for fun and for science: any thoughts here on what (if any) effects a healthy dose of blue food coloring added to the mix would produce? would the dye stain the crystal, or do you think it would basically decant itself out?

Thanks! ...aaaannd NO!!:evil:



If your wanting them to be pretty big crystals, I think the dye would fall to the bottom with all the other impurities.
Although that's just a guess... I really have no idea.

WS

One can allow it to sit undisturbed at room temperature to get the best sized crystal. Evaporation and oxidation can be prevented by covering the top of the container (a small hole wouldn't hurt). Just let it sit for a week or so and the crystals will be huge.

Most dyes are water soluble and would not dissolve in the organic solvent. Either way it would probably not be a good idea to smoke those dyes although it would look cool. Oral ingestion would be fine though ! One could do it with the fumarate crystals with a water recrystalziation although it is likely that the dye would not be incorporated in to the crystalline structure it may stain the outside though.