Hey has anyone done a legitimate Stoichiometrical equation for a Straight to Base extraction. I have a pretty good idea of the chemistry that goes on in STB tek but I thought I might update my knowledge on the actual math behind it. So anyway I hope all you chemistry wizards have some good answers because I am horrible at figuring out Soichiometry.

The stoichiometry is actually fairly irrelevant. Here's why :

People use excess NaOH to lyse the plant cells. By breaking down the cells and plant material this allows the 'trapped' alkaloids to become 'available'. The excess Lye in an STB of course also readily makes DMT it's freebase 'species' .

Hopefully this helps out .

Well most people use 1g of lye per 1ml of water right? So 1kg per litre there are 'n' moles...

n=m/M
n=1000g/40g/mol
n=25mol

So therefore we have 25 moles of NaOH per litre of water. The concentration, c, is...

c=n/v
c=25mol/1L
c=25mol/L

So we have some pretty powerful solution at 25mol/L. Since NaOH is a strong base, it dissociates completely when dissolved in water, i.e [NaOH] = [OH-] ([x] meaning concentration of x). To find the pH we must first find the pOH...

pOH = -log[OH]
pOH = -log25
pOH = -1.4

And because of the relationship between pH and pOH...

pH + pOH = 14
pH = 14 - pOH
pH = 14 - -1.4
pH = 15.4

Of course, you can't get a pH above 14, so excess lye has been added. And a fair amount by the looks of it. The pH scale is logarithmic, so if you used 10 times less base, the pH would only be 1 lower. If you used only 100g of lye per litre you would still have some mighty potent and corrosive stuff. The thing is though, the lye might be reacting with certain natural acids or other annoying organic things which uses up a fair amount. Like InMotion already said, it's to break down the cell walls and plant material.

Well, there's some of the chemistry in STB extractions.

Good stuff, thanks guys. I wish bill nye would have done an episode on extraction chemistry