Hey all,

I have a vial of (what I believe to be, but am still testing) liquid LSD. I have printed/perforated blotter paper from a reputable supplier. I'm applying the liquid to each square of the paper via dropper and I noticed that I had some liquid that had leaked through the blotter and into the base paper that I had the blotter sitting on. Am I doing something wrong? Is some amount of leak through to be expected when dripping single drops onto blotter?

Cheers
-idt

I would recommend laying the blotter on a glass plate/tray/pan that way you can easily recover the drip through with a bit of ethanol.

Thanks dreamer. Makes sense. I was just going to put it on foil next time but the fact that it leaked through is what reallysurprised me. I expected the blotter to be more absorbent. Wish I had enough to dip, then it wouldn't be an issue.

I wouldn't recommend dipping anyway. Sheets don't dry at exactly the same time for every square. As each tab dries, the other wetter ones wick up more of the dissolved compound, which can result in some weak blots and some very strong ones. A micro pipette is a much safer way to do it.

I'd use candies instead of paper. Vials aren't correct concentration of LSD - solvent for laying blotter.

I am experimenting with micropipette but with mixed results.

So far I tried only 300 lb watercolor paper, not a real blotter (though the material is similar to real blotter paper I purchased, if not the same).

The problem is that even at 20 microliters the resulting spot covers several tabs around.

At 100 microliters, the spot is pretty big, several centimeters across.

Of course, I can ignore this and just continue dropping on center of each tab separately, leaving the spots to overlay and hoping the LSD concentration will even out. The tip of the pipette actually touches the paper to promote soaking the liquid in it, as dropping liquid on paper might be inaccurate.

Corners are troublesome as the liquid can travel only towards center of the paper, thus ineviteably creating hot spots in the corners.

I will try to use some dye with suitable solvent for lysergide tartrate (70% ethanol ?). Hopefully the dye will show hot spots and it would be possible to optimize the laying strategy.

For the pipetting experiment, I have used 95% ethanol so maybe it would behave more neatly with some water in it (less mobile and more compact liquid).

may i make a suggestion; something that worked quite well in the past...
i was searching for something that would have maximum absorption without bleeding into another portion..

you know those test strips for fragrance? you can buy them, very cheaply, in bulk. they are meant to absorb and barely bleed at all. granted, you'd have to apply however many drops to each strip and mark them accordingly. you could have one set of single-dose, another set of double-dose, etc...

after it dries it's easy to see the margin of where the liquid was. just trim/snip off the end and voila - a perfect blotter!

check it out - it's a bit more work than a sheet, but foolproof.

cheers

Thanks but I have to use classic blotter with 8 mm square tabs. This is because I have been asked to use a specific sheet of blotter (custom art).

I have been given an LSD crystal (supposedly a tartrate salt, but I will do a reagent test and TLC once dissolved) - so I plan to make a solution (1 mg/ml) and then dispense it.

Using strips would make sense when micropipetting the solution but in that case I can use candies or other sorbent carrier as well.

I don't count the amount in "drops" because I use variable micropipette, so instead I set the pipette for the exact volume required (20 - 200 microliters) and push the plunger very slowly while touching the paper. If the pipette is positioned vertically, it created nice symmetric spot. The only problem is that the spot is big.

I will try to dilute the ethanol and dye it to see if there are hotspots. So far I used the 300 lb watercolor paper, but perforated blotter might work better since the flow of liquir through perforation is constrained.

ah...i see.
my "solution" is more for personal use when one has liquid and wants to prepare doses.
cheers and good luck!
and congrats (and be careful!) with such rare and powerful medicine in crystal form.