I have browsed this site many a moon but have decided to finally register. Then I kinda browsed a more for a while. And now I am ready to ask some questions. Please do bear with me as this may be an extensive post and I really do apologize for it being somewhat of a colossus. I have been waiting to ask these things for a while now.

So I am wondering a couple of things. First off I find that the naptha I used had a lot of white stuff floating around in it. I really am sorry as I do not have pictures of the phenomenon but I will describe the best I can. Basically when the NPS gets cold (but after freeze precip has taken place) I find a filmy white substance floating around in the bottle. This only occurs at low temperatures and as the temperature of the solution goes up the substance dissipates. I have my doubts of it being the target alkaloid as it is not crystalline in nature. My best guess is that it is some conglomeration of fats and oils but if anyone has experience with this I would enjoy some enlightenment.

My second NPS question is about the quality and viability of naptha after use. Since I am working with a fat heavy bark the pulls I get turn my NPS a shade of yellow. I hear that re using naptha is A-OK and that this yellowing should not have significant effect. I also have read that in time the naptha will become over saturated with fats and such that it will decrease in its ability to pull the target molecule. My major question is how many uses should I get out of my naptha before it is too saturated with oils and fats to be effective? Further is there any method that could clean the naptha other than your average filtering techniques?

Moving from questions regarding naptha we will now have questions regarding sodium containing reagents.

Backsalting. Or just salting. I think its called backsalting. Anyway, my understanding is that one salts the acidic solution as to push the target molecule out of it and into the basic phase more readily. Is this correct? Salting has worked for me. If a defatting process is involved would one use salting in both acidic phases or is it only effective in the very first stage?

Further is there any significant interaction between NaCl and NaOH? My theory (I have a lot of theories as an armchair chemist so if the are absolute BS please let me know why) is that there is no significant interaction and as stated above the salting is an intermediate step to pushing more of the target molecule out of the first phase.

With use of NaOH will any product that is branded as 100% lye be 100% sodium hydroxide? I generally read the MSDS to ensure that is indeed the ingredient but I really just want to make sure that NaOH and lye are indeed the same thing.

And thats about it for now. I am going to let this simmer and see what comes back. I have a load more questions but this is already getting to be an unweildly OP. So I will leave it at that.

what you are seeing is probably naptha loosing its solibility, possibly residual water freezing as well. NaCl+NaOH will be fine, don't worry. You can re-use the naptha, wash it with some carbon and filter it. You can get activated charcoal at he aquarium sectiom of walmart.

Regards, 1ce

White stuff? This thread also has white percipitate in naphta

You could do some "advanced" filtering. Freeze it then filter. And repeat it.
Vacuum filter for best results. Or destill it when you have the equipment. That will make it really pure again because fats are not gonna boil away at naptha temperature.

NaCl is what you get when you react NaOH with HCl. NaCl is really stable and does not react with many things unless you use eletrolysis.

Lye is most commonly just NaOH. Because its so cheap to make and basically a side product of making chlorin gas out of NaCl which is commonly used in large scale chemistry.

Historically Lye was the alkaline salt you get from wood ash. So basically a mix of NaOH, NaCO3, KOH, KCO3. But that is known as Pottash today.

Just take a look at your lye. And make sure that if you buy it as drain cleaner that it doesnt have these tiny aluminium beads in it. These will contaminate your product and react with the NaOH.

Dont leave lye lying around because it will attract moisture.

Also thats why you never use NaOH in aluminium dishes.

Lye can dissolve glass when heated and heats up water while dissolving.

Thanks mates. Both posts helped put my mind at ease and confirmed some preconceptions. I truly appreciate the link regarding the precipitate.

One more question I have is in regards to what Ulim said about NaOH dissolving glass. Is this only under certian conditions or should glass not be used with NaOH? I assume you wrote heated because you mean at temperatures higher than its natural output via exothermic reaction correct?

Is this only under certian conditions or should glass not be used with NaOH?




Glass is fine so long as you use cool water and add the NaOH slowly while stirring.

It will also attract carbon dioxide and slowly turn into sodium carbonate/bicarbonate. But really, just keep it in its sealed container. It's not nice!