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BOOFF Tek for MDMA purification. From brown oily mess to white dry MDMA crystals Options
 
Ulim
#1 Posted : 4/16/2018 6:53:42 PM

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Ulim Presents

BROWN OIL OFF TEK

You all know the quality of MDMA you often find, brownish chunk with a strong smell of safrole. Which has a sweet spicy smell which is of a class of its own. This mdma is often sold with fancy names such as "Cola" MDMA. Basically selling trash as gold.

While that MDMA might be pleasant it is not what a psychonaut wants as this mdma is not pure.
Safrole itself is toxic for liver and kidney so its best to reduce exposure.

This tek can also be applied to pills to some extend.
My tek employs the solubility of the impurities and MDMA in 3 different solvents for a removal of any unwanted products.

This tek will not magically purify MDMA that has heavy cut as some compounds like other amphetamines will not be removed by this tek.

THIS TEK DOESNT MEAN YOU DONT NEED TO TEST THE MDMA

I recommend reading the Tek in one sitting and not using it as a recipe while doing it.
Rather read and understand then attempt. Because there are different variations to the tek.
Also this tek has no measurements because it details what you should look out for for the quantities and in most cases accuracy is not needed.


Step 1: What is needed

Starting off you want to aquire distilled water. Acetone and Isopropyl alcohol in the driest condition possible.
Also needed is anydrous Magnesium sulfate (MgSO4) or anhydrous Calcium Chloride (CaCl2) to ensure dryness of the solvent.
Also some sort of glas beaker with a notch to pour off the solutions. You dont want to spill anything so this is pretty mandatory. Dont use plastic as hot solvents are used. Steel works fine too.

Step 2: Prepare the Solvents

Add your dry MgSO4 or CaCl2 to the acetone and to the ipa. I like to to throw in some good sized chunks. Cover the solvent jars and then put them in the fridge for a day or so to make sure it is dry and cold.

OPTIONAL Step 3: Dissolve the MDMA or the Pill in distilled Water

If your MDMA can be powdered you can skip this step. If your MDMA is brown and oil or in a pill continue here.
Add the MDMA to a dish and cover it in distilled water.
The solublity of MDMA HCl is high in water so it should immeadiatly dissolve into a brown solution.
Now for a pill its gonna be more tricky. Most of the aviable pill mixes are actually all not water soluable so if you have a pill you need to filter after this step. Just pour it through a coffee filter and rinse with some distilled water so no MDMA gets stuck in the paper filter.

Bye Bye MDMA

After it is sure there are no more solids in the MDMA you can begin reducing the solution by simply putting the heat to 100°C and waiting. MDMA is heat resistant so its okay if you heat to dryness unless your stove is well over 100°C in temp. Im using a lab hotplate so i have accurate temperature control.
Just make sure the water doesnt boil while reducing.
If you have lots of time you can also let it evaporate on its own.

After some time crystals will form. At this point I took it off the hotplate and let it cool.
I did this step to make sure the MDMA is homogenous as mine came as a powder mixed with solid clumps that were to hard to break apart.

Step 4: Powder the MDMA

The freshly cristallised and warm MDMA can be powdered quite easily with a spoon. I just crush the crystals between the spoon and the dish.
This step is one of the most important ones so take your time and make sure there are no visible clumps. The bad MDMA I had did stick a to the glass a lot but thats no problem for the next step.

Step 5: Removing impurities with Acetone

For this step it is critical to ensure the MDMA is dry and the dish is cold.
And also this is the first step involving the solvents.
This means:
Work in a space with lots of air circulation and no open flames
You can work inside but work with a respirator.
I was working with a strong draft pulling the fumes away from me and out the window.
THIS IS ESPECIALLY IMPORTANT FOR THE STEPS LATER
Also this is the reason we put the solvents in the fridge this reduces fuming and the solublity of the MDMA in the acetone reducing loss.

Add the cold dry Acetone to the MDMA and start mixing it around. I spend some time also scraping the walls and grinding the MDMA in the acetone.
The amount you want is so it is covered but also not a lot. So you just want to easily swish around the MDMA in it but not more.

Then carefully remove the acetone without pouring off the MDMA

Yellow acetone
I put it onto my hotplate and turned the heat to 40°C to make for a fast evaporation of the rest of the acetone.

I also kept the acetone that was poured off to check for loss. There was nearly no MDMA after the acetone evaporated so make sure to keep and evaporate the acetone in case something went wrong and you miss high amounts of mdma. In case you find lots of mdma in the evapped acetone you need to dry your acetone further and start anew.

This is a picture of the acetone shortly before it was fully evapped. No crystals formed at all but it was deep red from impurities like safrole and some oils floating about.

If you got a result you are happy with you can stop here. But if you want truly pure MDMA crystals you need to continue.

Step 6: ReX the MDMA from hot IPA

As you read from the step title this deals with HOT IPA. Which means you will have tons of fumes. So much even they will start to hurt your eyes and the place will smell like you just tried to shower using hand sanitizer. It will smell like a hospital during flu seasons so make sure
NO OPEN FLAMES AND RESPIRATOR + GOGGLES
IPA is toxic so its best not to inhale fumes as they will give you a headache quick too.

Add the dry cold IPA to your MDMA so it is just covered.
I put the heat on my plate to 100°C and waited for it to start to boil. If the MDMA does dissolve you used enough IPA. If not add some more to it.
In this step it is crucial to use low amounts of IPA or you will loose a lot of MDMA to it (dont worry you can always evap the solvent removed to recover it)

Now the tricky way is to determine when its finally time to stop reducing the IPA.
You can sometimes see the MDMA crystals on the ground. A tiny white haze that sticks to the walls. This a good thing. This means the solution has a high conc of MDMA.
Video of haze

I pulled the heat up and all the crystals on the ground dissolved.
Then I filtered.
This filter is to remove lint and possible salt contamination in the MDMA because salts dont dissolve well in the dry IPA.

Afterwards I continued to reduce the MDMA solution by half. Then I left it to cool and many nice looking crystals formed.
I placed it in the freezer (-18°C) and after half a day I poured of the IPA.

I then repeated this step 2 times till many tiny needles formed. (Omitting the filtering step the next to times.

Step 7: Filtering the MDMA and last cleanup step

Last thing was to get the MDMA out of the jar and out onto a filter paper.
I simply prepared a filter and transferred the MDMA crystals to the filter. Then i washed the dish with cold acetone and poured everything through the filter.

After the solvents dripped through I washed it one last time with icecold dry acetone and then left it out to dry. (Keep all solvents)

After it had dried for a day I transferred it to a jar which i left open since a faint solvent smell was still present.

After this procedure i was left with 3,4g off white MDMA with faint smell of safrole making for a 62% yield. It is dry and crunchy and not an oily mess and doesnt stick to glas.
Now many ppl might say this is too low for them but they forget this is the PUREST MDMA of it all.
The worst stuff is the one pulled from the first Acetone wash. Discard this or use as smell oil as the safrole is mostly in here.
The second quality is in the first IPA. Usable but still sticky i discarded it.
The third quality is in the second IPA. I kept this.
The fourth quality is the last IPA. I kept this

These "MDMA fractions" knock up the yield to an 86% yield only taking third fourth and last.

Now what I plan to do with these is simply add them into the next cleanup as I will personally only use the highest quality.

Now some MDMA crystal porn
Ulim attached the following image(s):
pR6KrrV.jpg (308kb) downloaded 889 time(s).
XeBecWp.jpg (511kb) downloaded 888 time(s).
YLJvWZC.jpg (539kb) downloaded 888 time(s).
 

Explore our global analysis service for precise testing of your extracts and other substances.
 
Jees
#2 Posted : 4/16/2018 8:42:28 PM

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Amazing Ulim, I've never had molly before just because of the substantial non-mdma that usually comes with it.
Thank you.
 
endlessness
#3 Posted : 4/16/2018 10:53:48 PM

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Thanks for posting this clean up! Here's an old thread with a similar acetone wash:

https://www.dmt-nexus.me...aspx?g=posts&t=29486

I'd love to see this before vs after to get tested with some analytical method to see what is it really cleaning... You say ' safrole', but how do you know there is any of it in the final product, or what do you base your hypothesis on?

I wonder also what other crystallization methods could work, for example FASAing MDMA, or dual solvent crystallization etc.

Smile


Lastly, just to be clear to other people who might not be aware, it is very possible such clean up method would NOT work to separate different adulterants that might be added together with (or in place of) MDMA. This should work for solvent remains from the synth and other lesser impurities.

Please always test your substances, at the very least with multiple reagents, better TLC, or even better send to a lab.
 
Ulim
#4 Posted : 4/17/2018 6:45:16 PM

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endlessness wrote:

I'd love to see this before vs after to get tested with some analytical method to see what is it really cleaning... You say ' safrole', but how do you know there is any of it in the final product, or what do you base your hypothesis on?

Well thats the compound which the synthesis of mdma is often based on. Also the smell is very very strong and unique.

endlessness wrote:
Lastly, just to be clear to other people who might not be aware, it is very possible such clean up method would NOT work to separate different adulterants that might be added together with (or in place of) MDMA. This should work for solvent remains from the synth and other lesser impurities.
Please always test your substances, at the very least with multiple reagents, better TLC, or even better send to a lab.

Its already mentioned at the top that this tek does not replace testing. Big in red.


Also end i could send a sample of the clean mdma and of the "dirty rest" to show what it is.
 
blue.magic
#5 Posted : 6/1/2018 1:37:32 PM

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Few more notes:

* (from Endlessness) Avoid calcium chloride (CaCl2) for drying alcohols as it partially dissolves and may form calcium salts, some being liquid so one cannot remove it by filtration - it's not a very big deal if you use just IPA and acetone and CaCl2 is not super toxic, but still Smile some people like to snort MDMA and as CaCl2 is a powerful drying agent, it can irritate mucous tissue.

* I like to do the acetone washes in a smooth mortar, to simultaneously grind it and wash. Use ice cold acetone ro reduce vapors.

* I think a simple refluxing setup over steam bath or water would be ideal for the IPA recrystallization. Simply add more IPA dropwise until all the MDMA dissolves, then leave it to crystallize while slowly letting it cool down. The reflux condenser will avoid the "hospital" smell in the room. But I agree the presented setup is allows a low-tech cleanup for most people.

* (from Endlessness) It's good to wash the crystals once more after they grew from IPA, since the powder can trap the brown discoloration.

 
Alan Watts
#6 Posted : 2/27/2019 8:47:58 PM

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I would just love to whip out my macro lens and take some stunning photos of these crystals. They look beautiful.
 
Hotspur922
#7 Posted : 3/7/2019 9:19:56 PM

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great read
 
Dasein
#8 Posted : 7/17/2022 4:09:58 AM

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So just out of curiosity, I tried the A/B method, basified with NaOH, pulled with toluene, salted with dilute HCl, then evaporated the water but I was left with a greenish goo which just would crystalize. I dissolved the goo in IPA and put it in the fridge but again, only goo came out.

Does anyone have any idea what happened there?
این جهان با تو خوش است و آن جهان با تو خوش است
این جهان بی‌من مباش و آن جهان بی‌من مرو

ای عیان بی‌من مدان و ای زبان بی‌من مخوان
ای نظر بی‌من مبین و ای روان بی‌من مرو
 
Cosmic Giggle
#9 Posted : 7/17/2022 6:01:52 PM

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Dasein wrote:
So just out of curiosity, I tried the A/B method, basified with NaOH, pulled with toluene, salted with dilute HCl, then evaporated the water but I was left with a greenish goo which just would crystalize. I dissolved the goo in IPA and put it in the fridge but again, only goo came out.

Does anyone have any idea what happened there?

Confused

Wut?
Thanks for at least bumping a cool thread. Probably wouldn't have seen it otherwise.

Whatever your method, it seems beyond my expertise, but I am curious what your starting material was. I've never seen (or heard of) green goo.
I'd test it on a family of turtles and observe them for a couple days before trying it.
 
Dasein
#10 Posted : 7/19/2022 12:06:36 AM

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Well, starting material was just the usual MDMA, I dissolved it in water, filtered, evaped, then acetone washes, IPA recrystallization, no green goo anywhere! Everything went as mentioned in this tek. But only with the A/B method things got weird. There was also a layer of snot between toluene and the polar layer... Also, I wonder if other salt forms could be possible as well... I took a small portion of the toluene pull and added benzoic acid to it, nothing happened! I don't have much knowledge of chemistry, nor have I had much luck finding anything useful on the chemical properties of MDMA, so I am just trying out random stuff.
این جهان با تو خوش است و آن جهان با تو خوش است
این جهان بی‌من مباش و آن جهان بی‌من مرو

ای عیان بی‌من مدان و ای زبان بی‌من مخوان
ای نظر بی‌من مبین و ای روان بی‌من مرو
 
Dasein
#11 Posted : 8/20/2022 3:00:21 PM

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So, I have been playing around with this... In my last attempt I used some more IPA than necessary so the solution wasn't fully saturated. I heated up the glass bowl before pouring the solution in it so that the crystals wouldn't fall out too quick. And then I covered it up with plastic wrap and left it undisturbed overnight. I managed to grow pretty nice crystals.

I noticed that the crystals which fall out at room temperature are much cleaner, so I decanted the solution in a different bowl before putting it in the freezer. The crystals formed in the freezer had a slight tan color, those I will recrystallize once more. So... it works better if you separate the room temperature fraction which is around 70 percent of the total amount, the rest can be precipitated in the freezer and that way, if you want to clean up any further, you would only have to work with the freezer fraction.

and now... some crystal porn!
Dasein attached the following image(s):
IMG_20220818_112515.jpg (2,020kb) downloaded 337 time(s).
IMG_20220818_134000.jpg (1,891kb) downloaded 337 time(s).
IMG_20220818_135531.jpg (2,469kb) downloaded 337 time(s).
IMG_20220818_133947.jpg (1,796kb) downloaded 336 time(s).
IMG_20220818_134012.jpg (1,617kb) downloaded 336 time(s).
IMG_20220818_135617.jpg (1,638kb) downloaded 328 time(s).
این جهان با تو خوش است و آن جهان با تو خوش است
این جهان بی‌من مباش و آن جهان بی‌من مرو

ای عیان بی‌من مدان و ای زبان بی‌من مخوان
ای نظر بی‌من مبین و ای روان بی‌من مرو
 
navegandouniversos
#12 Posted : 8/24/2023 2:17:38 PM

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hi !!

thanks for share it my friend.

what you think about MEK to replace the acetone ?

 
downwardsfromzero
#13 Posted : 8/24/2023 2:31:00 PM

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Lovely xtals, Dasein! Thanks for sharing your results.

Greenish tinges with MDMA are not wholly unheard of, they're related to small amount of MDP2P polymer remnants left over from the last synthetic step, it would seem.




“There is a way of manipulating matter and energy so as to produce what modern scientists call 'a field of force'. The field acts on the observer and puts him in a privileged position vis-à-vis the universe. From this position he has access to the realities which are ordinarily hidden from us by time and space, matter and energy. This is what we call the Great Work."
― Jacques Bergier, quoting Fulcanelli
 
Dasein
#14 Posted : 8/24/2023 5:35:39 PM

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I haven't tried it but since MEK is very similar to acetone, it can be used for washing. For recrystallization it could be different, I have tried a mixture of 50:50 MEK and IPA and the crystals seem to take much longer to fall out and the process does not yield better or cleaner crystals.

One more update: I took an extremely dirty, sample, it was nearly greenish black (not the purple dye which is somewhat common in some places). Judging from past experiences, it was clear that the usual method of acetone wash and IPA recrystallization would not work or at least take ages and dozens of recrystallizations to yield something reasonable. So I decided to dissolve it in a very small amount of hot water, creating a saturated or nearly saturated solution. I then filtered it, washed the filter paper with small amount of water, and left the solution to slowly crystallize over 2 weeks or so. I was surprised that the crystals formed were very pure and much of the black oil was neatly separated from them. In the end, I poured some acetone in there and swished it around a bit (without crushing the crystals but I did scrape them off of the sides and the bottom) and the oil easily dissolved in the acetone, leaving translucent crystals behind. Some of the impurities were still stuck inside the crystals which one could easily see, but those were just trace amounts. I evaped the acetone and got only oil and a darker, powdery substance with a bit sticky texture which I know from other experiments that its not MDMA. This procedure worked exceptionally well and there could have been no more than trace amounts of MDMA in there (literally nothing crystallized after evap).

Acetone washes on finely powdered MDMA dissolve much more MDMA and relatively less impurities in comparison. The evaps in that case always yielded oil which would eventually crystallize. My explanation is that the larger the surface area of MDMA crystals, the lower their solubility and hence the solvent can pick up a greater amount of other stuff. But of course, a somewhat cleaner crystal lattice is necessary for this method. For seriously dirty MDMA, this method would work much better, but it does demand greater patience. Most of the impurities can be separated in the first step, and after that, either the same step can be repeated, or an IPA recrystallization can be done.

I also performed another A/B but this time with DCM. I then added a few drops of dilute HCl and evaporated the solution. I did end up with crystalls, but they were much darker/blackish. So I think a) Toluene was the problem in the previous experiments, it probably does not dissolve MDMA freebase very well. DCM is a much better option. b) One has to be very careful with the amount of HCl as even with a few drops I ended up with a pH of 3, which is probably why the fairly translucent crystals had a blackish hue. Using an exact amount of HCl could solve this issue, but not sure when will I try that again.
این جهان با تو خوش است و آن جهان با تو خوش است
این جهان بی‌من مباش و آن جهان بی‌من مرو

ای عیان بی‌من مدان و ای زبان بی‌من مخوان
ای نظر بی‌من مبین و ای روان بی‌من مرو
 
navegandouniversos
#15 Posted : 8/24/2023 9:03:11 PM

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thanks so much for the answers, and that update !

i´ll try with mek and report here the news Smile

hugss !
 
Dasein
#16 Posted : 9/8/2023 2:53:45 PM

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So, I finally got done with the purification. I didn't take photos before purification, but the dark liquid in one of the photos is what the initial solution looked like. Out of that junk I made these big translucent crystals. The biggest one weighed 2.68g. I'll write the procedure in a bit orderly manner.

1- Start by dissolving your MDMA in a very small amount of hot water. The aim is to create a saturated solution. (You can also use a little extra water and then reduce the solution on a heating plate)

2- Filter the solution to get rid of the insoluble impurities. If you have a heating plate and can easily reduce the solution, wash the filter paper with a small amount of water

3- Let the solution rest for a couple of hours. If no crystals appear, reduce it some more. Be careful with the temperature though, keep it below 100. After reducing, let it rest for a few hours or overnight and see if crystallization begins.

4- Once the crystals start to appear, don't disturb the solution, just let it sit for a few days or weeks, depending on the amount of liquid.

5- When most of the MDMA has crystallized, pour the leftover liquid in another bowl and wash the crystals once or twice with a small amount of anhydrous acetone or cold IPA.

6- If they aren't sufficiently pure, redissolve in minimum hot water and repeat the procedure.

7- Let the left over liquid which you poured off in another bowl further evaporate. You may have to wait another week or so. Ultimately you'll end up with a bit dirtier crystals and some oil or waxy stuff. Separate the crystals either mechanically (with a small spatula) or by washing away the oil with a small amount of anhydrous acetone.

8- Redissolve the dirty crystals in hot water and repeat the process.

I was working with somewhat larger amount, but the method could possibly work for smaller amounts as well, but you'll have to try it out and see for yourself.
Dasein attached the following image(s):
IMG_20230901_101836.jpg (3,975kb) downloaded 104 time(s).
IMG_20230901_101822.jpg (3,849kb) downloaded 104 time(s).
IMG_20230906_193442.jpg (2,854kb) downloaded 104 time(s).
IMG_20230906_193808.jpg (3,865kb) downloaded 104 time(s).
IMG_20230906_194002.jpg (4,300kb) downloaded 104 time(s).
این جهان با تو خوش است و آن جهان با تو خوش است
این جهان بی‌من مباش و آن جهان بی‌من مرو

ای عیان بی‌من مدان و ای زبان بی‌من مخوان
ای نظر بی‌من مبین و ای روان بی‌من مرو
 
navegandouniversos
#17 Posted : 9/8/2023 10:09:22 PM

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thanks dasein

they look so beautiful, really nice crystals,
thanks for share them <3
im here ready to make it, so, when was done, i tell you the results

hugs!
 
Reggieros
#18 Posted : 1/19/2024 11:19:11 AM
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Alan Watts wrote:
I would just love to whip out my macro lens and take some stunning photos of these crystals. They look beautiful.

Displaying the delicate beauty of these gems with a macro lens is an excellent idea! The exquisite features and gorgeous patterns will certainly create captivating and breathtaking images.original magic 8 ball
 
 
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