How DMT Extractions work - The Chemical Principles

All DMT extraction teks are based on the relative solubilities of the DMT in it's protonated and unprotonated form. What does that mean exactly?

Lets start out with a crash-course some basic chemical principles. If you're familiar with acid/base equilibria and polar vs nonpolar solvents, feel free to skip ahead. If you don't want a chemistry lesson, likewise feel free to skip this section (though if you come across unfamiliar chemical terms in the extraction overview, check back here for definitions). All important terms are in bold so you can glance back and check the definition if you forget what it means.



Acids and Bases

A proton is a positively hydrogen ion, H[sup]+[/sup]. The transfer of protons is the entire basis of acid/base chemistry. An acid is a molecule that can donate a proton. A base is a molecule that can acquire a proton.

Every acid has a conjugate base; for example, when acetic acid (CH[sub]3[/sub]COOH) gives up the proton on its -COOH group (incidentally, this is called a "carboxylic acid"Pleased, its conjugate base is the acetate anion (CH[sub]3[/sub]COO[sup]-[/sup]). Thus acetic acid and acetate are called a "conjugate pair". Likewise, every base has a conjugate acid; for example, when ammonia (NH[sub]3[/sub]) aquires a proton, its conjugate acid is an ammonium cation (NH[sub]4[/sub][sup]+[/sup]). (Ammonia and ammonium are another conjugate pair).

Just a bit of terminology: An when a molecule carries a charge, we call it an ion. If it's positively charged, we call it a cation; if it's negatively charged, we call it an anion.



pH and pKa

The relative concentrations of each member of a conjugate pair in solution is determined by the pH. The lower the pH, the more protons there are in solution, and bases are eager to grab them up. The higher the pH, the less protons there are in solution, and the more eager the conjugate acids are to be rid of them. Low pH solutions are referred to as acidic, while high pH solutions are referred to as alkaline, or basic.

The pH where the concentrations of a base and its conjugate acid are equal is called the "pKa" of that conjugate pair. Above the pKa, more of the molecule exists in its base form; below the pKa, more of the molecule exists as its conjugate acid.

DMT is a neutral (uncharged) base, sometimes called a "freebase" because the uncharged ("free"Pleased base can be obtained as a solid. The pKa of DMT is 8.68. Above pH 8.68, it exists primarily in its neutral (uncharged) freebase form. Below pH 8.68, it exists primarily in its positively charged acid form.

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Salts

Often the protonated form of DMT will associate with a "counterion". When ions associate to form an complex with a net charge of 0, we call this a salt . Since DMT bears a positive charge, it must associate with a negatively charged ion in order to form a neutral salt. For example, if we acidify a solution of DMT using acetic acid, then the DMT will predominantly assume its charged (protonated) conjugate acid form, and will tend to associate with acetate ion (CH[sub]3[/sub]COO[sup]-[/sup]), the conjugate base of the acetic acid we used to acidify the solution. We would call the resulting salt DMT acetate.

So what does all this have to do with extracting DMT? Don't worry, we only need to talk about one more piece of the puzzle to start making sense of it.



Solvents

A solvent is a liquid in which other molecules can be dissolved. In the case of extractions, we're interested in dissolving DMT. For our purposes, there are two types of solvents: polar solvents, and nonpolar solvents. In polar solvents (like water and ethanol), polar compounds like salts and ions tend to be highly soluble (that is, they dissolve easily), while less polar compounds like hydrocarbons and neutral organic molecules (like DMT freebase) tend to be relatively insoluble (that is, they tend not to dissolve). In nonpolar solvents (like naphtha and dichloromethane) polar compounds tend to be insoluble, while less polar compounds tend to be more soluble. When polar and nonpolar solvents are mixed together, they typically stay seperated as two seperate layers, or "phases". Oil and water is the classic example of this phenomenon.

This is a simplified explanation, but it'll serve well enough to explain the basic principles of the process.


Now let's bring it all back home with respect to extracting DMT:

In acidic water, DMT exists predominantly in its protonated form, either as a cation or a salt. Since the protonated form of DMT is relatively polar, DMT is quite soluble in acidic water. In alkaline water, DMT exists predominantly in its freebase form. While the freebase is not particularly soluble in water, it's not so insoluble that it falls out of solution or forms a seperate layer. But if we were to mix an alkaline solution of DMT with a nonpolar solvent, since the DMT freebase is much more soluble in the nonpolar solvent, much of it will migrate from the polar solvent to the nonpolar solvent.

This is the basis of almost every DMT extraction.

That covers the theory side of things pretty well, now let's talk about the practical side of things.

After familiarizing yourself with the Attitude and the FAQ. The best place to seek information (particularly on materials other than DMT) is the Wiki.

You can read about the solubility of mescaline there as well as explore a variety of extraction methodologies.

That's where you are going to find the droid you seek.

Haapi extracting

P.S.- The answers most useful for other information seekers and thus forum posterity come about when the querent has familiarized themselves with the basic foundational information and exhausted all readily available resources and thus can direct specified inquiries that clarify, advance, or build upon the foundational information.