Extracting caffeine with methylene chloride

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Күн бұрын

In a previous video, I showed how to extract caffeinated water from green coffee beans with supercritical CO2. Here, I show how to extract dry caffeine crystals from the caffeinated water (ie coffee, in this case). I used a vacuum filtration setup to create very strong coffee, then mixed it with methylene chloride in a seperatory funnel. The methylene chloride sinks below the water, taking most of the caffeine with it. By opening the funnel carefully, only the methylene chloride and caffeine can be transferred to a flask where the methylene chloride is boiled away. I then mounted a test tube in a rubber stopped and filled the tube with ice. With the stopped in the flask, I evacuated the flask and applied heat. The caffeine will sublimate and collect on the cold test tube. I scraped off the caffeine and measured the mass.

Пікірлер: 158

@DrUgifer 9 жыл бұрын

You might be able to make purer material with a slightly longer separation workup. Firstly, remember to vent your separation funnel after you shake it to avoid popping the cap off. If you washed your aqueous extract with several small washed of DCM rather than one, you would get a large % of the extractable caffeine out, especially if you chilled the water for the later extracts. Then, combine the DCM layers and wash those with iced water to back-extract any of the water-soluble impurities which disslove slightly in the DCM. I think you would end up with material that was purer with much less loss than your sublimation method. re-crystallisation from boiling water would also be a good purification method because caffeine is much more soluble in hot water than cold.

@oisiaa 12 жыл бұрын

Your channel makes me think of what it must have been like to be an 18th century scientist! It is so exciting!

@MrItsthething 9 жыл бұрын

Nice video, I loved the information. One possible improvement would be to dissolve the caffeine deposited on the test tube in acetone or DCM, and then let it crystallize. You could also add a few mL of water to this before evaporation, so the water left behind could dissolve some of the impurities.

@MrSmudger687 11 жыл бұрын

Dear Ben, you may be able to increase the yield of caffeine extraction by washing the grinds with aqueous HCl - caffeine will likely be protonated and be pulled into the aqueous layer, you can then basify with NaOH and then extract multiple times with DCM. Having a finer grind will also probably increase the amount of caffeine you can extract - a finer grind may allow for better solvation of the coffee and better diffusion of dissolved products.

@AppliedScience 10 жыл бұрын

I never knew the reason for adding NaOH. Thanks for the explanation.

@DopeIsotope 11 жыл бұрын

I just figured you might be a teacher/professor because of your ability to explain something thoroughly without losing your audience. You would do well in a college setting :)

@cooldawg2009 12 жыл бұрын

Very cool Man!!! I learn Something new each time! Never thought about Sublimation Purification! Awesome!

@JugurthaHadjar 11 жыл бұрын

Awesome videos, as always !

@ikrogers92 10 жыл бұрын

Awesome vids! When I get my own house Id like a set up like that!

@scotttyler4565 11 жыл бұрын

Every time I've done it in lab, it helps clear it up. I do agree though that adding a base will increase yeild, as it will protonate the caffeine, making it hydrophobic.

@Ammoniummetavanadate 12 жыл бұрын

I just did this in my first organic chemistry lab. We brewed tea then used the same liquid-liquid process. It was interesting, very different from the amine based process I used for Ti at my las co-op job.

@broadblik 11 жыл бұрын

Excellent use of a widgy bar.

@pb89905 7 жыл бұрын

Some handmade equipment :P Great video but I would recommend to use instant coffee. Faster and less messy... results are very similar to these you've achieved. Also the easier way to check caffeine content in caffeinated drinks is to use spectro. Good video anyway!

@chris_1337 12 жыл бұрын

Ben, you seem to imply that espresso is stronger than drip coffee, but I think that drip is stronger, since, the longer water stays in contact with the coffee, the more caffeine is released. And, of course, in an espresso, as the name implies, the water stays in contact with the coffee for a very, very short time. Anyway, awesome videos! Keep up the great work!

@smitty3919 12 жыл бұрын

nice video! I really like the way you explain and demonstrate all your work! and yes I think we all would like to see you extract methylene chloride from acrylic cement....or the paint stripper if you can..lol

@r3dm4il 9 жыл бұрын

love these videos

@sauter121 10 жыл бұрын

Interesting approach.. I would consider a simple recrystallation (possiblely with over sublimation.

@DavidEvans_dle 10 жыл бұрын

Extracting caffeine? The first step to breaking bad, first caffeine then meth!

@kalani4ever359 4 жыл бұрын

Same thing I thought

@meroalashry 12 жыл бұрын

very good thank u

@HeaanLasai 5 жыл бұрын

Idea: Ultrasound supercritical extraction Outline: The behaviour of supercritical mediae is counterintuitive. The way it flows through solid objects is one of the most complicated processes, behaving different than condensed solvents. Supercritical mediae can have difficulties pulling certain compounds out of a solid grain of organic material like a coffee bean grain. Ultrasound can be used to essentially push supercritical CO2 (or other medium) into the grain of coffee, and then suck that CO2 back out of the grain with each passing sound wave. Similar to how you rinse your teeth with mouthwash. You don't just let it flow over your teeth, you force it back and forward. This can significantly increase extraction efficiency when extracting from solid organic sources like ground coffee beans.

@Ammoniummetavanadate 12 жыл бұрын

Just a second note, there is a large amount of nasty emulsion formed by the dichloromethane - aqueous agitation. It is better just to swirl it slowly and let the concentration gradient move the caffeine onto the organic. That was probably the source of most of your impurities. It also helps to dry the organic before boiling.

@amfaao321 10 жыл бұрын

Hey Ben great video, I have a question about the extraction. I know that adding brine makes the extraction more effective but what if you over saturate the aqueous phase. Would it ruin the extraction? My best guess is that the salt that precipitates from the aqueous phase falls into the methylene chloride and start to dissolve. Thus making the extraction less effective

@JenniferSanchez-ob7yi 10 жыл бұрын

Hey, the reason why coffee is brown is because of the tannins in the coffee beans. They are acidic but if you add a base it will neutralize the tannins.

@jhyland87 3 жыл бұрын

Great explanation! Thanks. I knew adding a base helped, but usually the reason given is just "caffeine is more soluble when it's in a basic solution", but your reason sounds much more accurate.

@scotttyler4565 11 жыл бұрын

I would suggest, after your first water extraction, adding activated charcol to it (same as what's in a britta water filter), heat to boiling, allow it to cool, then sucking it through a bukner again. This should clear up the solution significantly by adsorbing any very fine particulates, and cut back on the impurities.

@jhyland87 8 жыл бұрын

Just curious.. what do you do with the Cafeine crystals when you're done? lol..

@thenumber1ofalltime 9 жыл бұрын

A flash chromatography would be the best way to remove those colorful impureties, which are probably of organic nature as well. You will be able to see them in the column. You only need to find a way to identify, which, among the fractions that you will collect, contain your caffeine.

@nolansykinsley3734 8 жыл бұрын

It makes me thing a bit, when I see the concept of "sous vide" that is controlling the temperature exactly to achieve the desired doneness for food, and it makes me wonder, would a precisely controlled temperature bath help in this situation? I always see chemists measuring the temperature of the distillate stream, but would it not be better to precisely measure the heat input to the system instead?

@access2whites474 8 жыл бұрын

Did you ever do the video on the extraction of dcm from the acrylic cement?

@dizzolve 7 жыл бұрын

I always wondered where you found the time for all this ............ now I know how. You don't sleep - do you

@tommasopetrella9278 11 жыл бұрын

To increase your yield you could add about 5 grams of sodium carbonate or even sodium hydroxide to extract more caffeine into the water. Worked well for me.

@7onySpilotro 11 жыл бұрын

great video, hypothetically if I had a solution of say caffeine water and a strongly basic compound, and i added the methlene chloride, would the methlene chloride leave the more basic compound it in the aquas layer of you're seperatory funnel or would it bring it in with the caffeine?

@iknowsstuff 11 жыл бұрын

you own an electron microscope!!!!!!!!!!! well im subscribing

@xelionizer 11 жыл бұрын

I recommend that you do at least 3 x washings with MeCl to assure complete trasnfer from the aq phase (maybe you did, but not showing in the vid?). Btw you really need to vent your sep when doing extractions like this! Cheers maid;)

@donaldasayers 9 жыл бұрын

Could you not get rid of the water entirely, by making a high pressure super critical soxhlet extractor?

@Sahlchem 11 жыл бұрын

good

@alienonearthgmail 12 жыл бұрын

Try brewing ground coffee with water at room temperature, over a period of 24-48 hours, to increase the caffeine concentration of the original solution. Although I am used to having 2-3 cups of coffee in the morning, the first time I had a cup of cold brewed coffee, I suffered serious palpitation from the caffeine concentration. Cold brewed coffee also tastes insipid. I assume that some of the volatile compounds that gives taste to the coffee also does not get dissolved in the water.

@AntiMatter24 11 жыл бұрын

please do a video on DCM Extraction

@isaacmiles-watt2758 5 жыл бұрын

Methylene chloride vs dichloromethane: let the debate begin!

@thenumber1ofalltime 9 жыл бұрын

Just so you guys know, the grind for drop filtration is finer than espresso grind. That is the major reason why filtered coffee usually has more caffeine per volume than espresso coffee, even if with the espresso coffee you apply 15psi of pressure. The strenght of espresso is provided by the torrefaction procedure, which provides a more strong taste, but the taste of coffee beans has absolutely no correlation with its caffeine content.

@ulfy01 12 жыл бұрын

I would add that methylene chloride has a low boiling point around 40 degrees C, thus for anyone wanting to try this at home: COOL the coffee before adding the methylene chloride, or you might have yourself a bomb, especially if the sep funnel plug is on.

@andrewdavis5386 7 жыл бұрын

I want to know more about this bright yellow substance that sublimated with the caffeine. Just to start with an obvious, and probably incorrect, guess: it being so yellow makes me wonder if it is a sulfur compound. What's your take on it?

@stocklaugh20 12 жыл бұрын

Hey I'm still learning chemistry and part of my experiment is to extract caffeine from coffee. I might try with this technique but is there any idea why do you use ice on the test tube ? and what is with the hose that is connected to the flask ?

@MrDoa1234 8 жыл бұрын

hello, am doing a similar experiment. Where did you get the temperature of the point the caffeine sublimes? Thanks and I appreciate it.

@gherkayhd 6 жыл бұрын

Hakha Behmanesh en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caffeine_(data_page)

@claralovesturtles 11 жыл бұрын

how did you mount the test tube on to the stopper?????

@jhyland87 5 жыл бұрын

Maybe using a soxhlet extractor would increase your yield?

@codyhildebrand13 11 жыл бұрын

I would also like to know what you do, because I would like to do awesome experiments in my home-lab as well as own an electron microscope.

@Phoen1x883 11 жыл бұрын

Oddly enough, he actually works for a game-development/game-delivery-platform/other-tidbits-here-and-there company called Valve. If I recall correctly, most of the work he does relates to hardware development, but I don't remember the details.

@duroncrush 8 жыл бұрын

Why use water at all, if the MEK is better at extraction of caffeine?

12 жыл бұрын

@SirDrinksAlot69 thanks! I didn't know what to google. Now I can say it in full sentence: Ben Krasnow is an awesome guy! :)

@ulyseedavis7540 3 жыл бұрын

What happens if you take a scoop of that pure caffeine and mix it in with cold brew coffee? Would it be like the strongest cold brew ever?

$@frac$

@frac 12 жыл бұрын

Caffeinated beer, of course!

@Whisper6911 12 жыл бұрын

BTW i think you can get the best temperature for extracting with water by simply measuring the temp of a good coffee maker. i suspect this is the best temperature for extracting caffeine as well as flavor.

@joninacann 12 жыл бұрын

how many times did you extract with methylene chloride? If you only did one then your loss would probably be mainly in the left over coffee. I believe it is general practice to do at least three extractions.

@UZI9MMAUTO 8 жыл бұрын

What about extraction of Caffeine from Guarana and other natural sources?

@QsoftStudios 12 жыл бұрын

Would you be able to use acetone for a solvent?

@Whisper6911 12 жыл бұрын

so what do you use the caffeine for once its extracted? also if you are interested in a similar challenge, how about extracting and isolating a chemical that can be dissolved in both polar and non polar solvent?

@wytototas4000 10 жыл бұрын

Could you do the same with theobromine in chocolate?

@slin1990 12 жыл бұрын

Why don't you extract the caffein from the powder with methylenchlorid right away? boil the solvent off and then recrystalize it with water? i think this should work.....sorry for my bad spelling i'm not from the usa xD But it's a great channel you have there, like it :)

@Ma_X64 4 жыл бұрын

There is another way to get caffeine. From green tea, caffeine is sublimated by heating in the presence of magnesium carbonate. This experience is described in one children's book on chemistry.

@tenderscootch 11 жыл бұрын

eat a reasonable and safe amount as I am curious whether the final product has any remaining toxic impurities?

@AddisonPhilips 9 жыл бұрын

I've had a terrible time with this. I even have a nice cold finger condenser. And a very reasonable vacuum pump. It won't boil water at room temperature, but warm it up a little bit and it boils readily. My problem is, I keep getting some moisture (water I believe) showing up after the liquid liquid extraction using methylene chloride. The water condenses on the cold finger, drips down to the bottom of the flask, mingling with my dried, crude caffeine then re-evaporating, back on to the cold finger. By the time the moisture is evacuated, I'm guessing the caffeine may have sublimated but must've gone right out through my vacuum pump. The tip of the cold finger is as clean as when it went in. Methylene chloride can't solvate any water, can it? I figure the water comes from not letting the sep funnel sit long enough after the very mild shakeup? - Mystified

@humboldtoregonian9400 5 жыл бұрын

Applied Science, why not use a closed loop pressurized with propane and use butane as the solvent. The proper mixture for this is 70% pure propane and 30% pure butane. Also it would be important to freeze the grounds first so that no fats come through. The result would be a tar like substance. Step two: remove any butane in a vacuum oven for two days. The final step would be to remove plant matter and separate the flavor from the caffeine. This would be done with a roto-vap set up using an alcohol solvent like Everclear. Using a triple trap the flavoring would come out first. as the product starts to clear, turn the triple trap to the second bell. at this point your waiting until the product is clear; at which point, turn the trap to the third bell. After this, let the clear substance dry for 95-97% pure caffeine. The reason why I mention this processes is that, you could extract from five to ten pounds of green coffee at the same time; instead of, the small amounts you were limited to here.

@2nostromo Жыл бұрын

So this is about chemistry right? Did you think about pH and the effect of charge on solubilities?

@xxdeadpool41xx23 7 жыл бұрын

Those Gloves On the SDS? For methyl chloride

@markethunter888 10 жыл бұрын

is there any other method, other than sublimation that could be used to obtain pure caffeine ? thnx

@jpfo1776 12 жыл бұрын

You are one clever dude! Have to say - methylene chloride is nasty! Even with boiling off methinks there will still be residual contamination at molecular level .. strikes me that 'removing' any solvent at the end of a process cannot be reliably a true 100%. Good work tho ... as always, fascinating stuff you put out, thanks.

@jogtp99 11 жыл бұрын

It's depend of a fews factors. -The caffeine percentage in the green coffee bean ( around 0.9%-2.2%) -The amount of coffee.

@123456789robbie 11 жыл бұрын

the hose is a vacuum pump, and you need to cool the test tube so it sublimates back, giving a purified crystal

@ChronoTriggerMusic 12 жыл бұрын

What kind of degrees do you have?

@stocklaugh20 12 жыл бұрын

Ok thx but is this method also compatible with tea ?? just wondering...

@pyroslavx7922 7 жыл бұрын

So caffeine sublimates at quite low temp...can you get high by smoking it and how is it like???

@halted_code 9 жыл бұрын

you said boiling the caffeinated water will give a tar like substance is that just boiling by heat or boiling by depressurization? would it work with out a solvent if you just kept the pressure really low till all of the water boils off? I'm just interested i cant do these experiments all of my money is going into college so I cant do more than what the chem teacher lets us. p.s. someone should give you a t.v. show where you just do interesting experiments all day like this I would watch it.

@facemouth 8 жыл бұрын

+jake lee Instant coffee is what you get when all the liquid is removed.

@spookytk 7 жыл бұрын

Good thing he had his electron microscope sitting around.

@marisboguts3305 10 жыл бұрын

Hey. Thanks for this vid! I was looking around for other vids and some guys were using cholroform/DCM. So could I use other nonpolar solvent to extract? Like naphta or maybe heptane? And answering to Tommaso Petrella, Adding NaOH to aqueous layer will mean you turn some of them in freebase form and they will dissolve pretty well and screw up your caffeine ectraxtion... So I think sodium carbonate should be better choice. But that is just me guessing. Havent tested yet. :)

@dinglebarry007 10 жыл бұрын

Toluene is commonly used non-polar solvent, but the solution would need to be basified with NaOH first. Toluene seperate ontop of water instead of below like DCM and this methylene chloride mixture, which could prove more difficult to purify than it sounds.

@kajal8961 2 жыл бұрын

Sodium carbonate is better option

@disrxt 7 жыл бұрын

You should snort some ,caffeine.

@noahchaney 10 жыл бұрын

methylene chloride extraction video please :)

@louistournas120 7 жыл бұрын

Search for dichloromethane. CH2Cl2. boiling point is 39.6 °C, so it is easy to extract and should be done outside.

@xevilstar 12 жыл бұрын

how can i be sure to obtain edible caffeine ?

@ArtuursPaulausks 9 жыл бұрын

Try making strong tea instead of coffee and before adding metilchloride add some 5% Na2CO3 to get rid of tannins. :)

@kajal8961 2 жыл бұрын

I have used 6 gm of Na2Co3 for 10 gm tea samples, what will happen if I increase or decrease the concentration of Na2Co3

@kajal8961 2 жыл бұрын

What amount of caffeine I will get ?

@Chemateur 12 жыл бұрын

It looks like you only did one extraction with the methylene chloride on that coffee liquor. If you did 3-4 extractions I'm sure you would get a higher yield of caffeine. You don't even have to used much more methylene chloride, but if you only do one extraction the caffeine solubility will reach an equilibrium in both the water and methylene chloride and a large amount will be lost. By doing multiple extractions you reach the equilibrium more often and more caffeine will be pulled out.

@jhyland87 5 жыл бұрын

Cant you recrystalize that?

@mrhinslh 12 жыл бұрын

who is your supplier for glass wear?

@PerMortensen 11 жыл бұрын

"The Walter White of caffeine," so Gale Boetticher?

@sylviaotchere2273 5 жыл бұрын

Are you to do the extraction once

@s3l1migg4 11 жыл бұрын

how much methylene chloride do you use??,

12 жыл бұрын

@bkraz333 Valve? You mean like, making a neat gun for the people who are still alive ;) But seriously, you're projects are like some geek-porn. Keep up the awesome work!

@Whisper6911 12 жыл бұрын

maybe u can get more by using alcohol to extract, and then leaving the solution in the fridge for say 48 hours. crystals should form in the solution, then u can drain off the liquid and dry the crystals. repeat the process with the remaining liquid to get the last bits out of it.

@Katie-yj3gm 2 жыл бұрын

whats the chemical equation for this ?

12 жыл бұрын

I'll just keep repeating this question under your videos if you don't mind. What do you do for living?

@vanodyssey1659 2 жыл бұрын

Truly how healthy is this though, don't they use methylene chloride in paint strippers?

@joeminiclip1273 11 жыл бұрын

eat it!! eat it!!!! eat it!!!!!!

@tplaysbass 11 жыл бұрын

Dissolve it in jello, then freeze dry the jello.

@Second2Rush 12 жыл бұрын

Next show us how to Extract, Things like Abrin and Ricin from Castor Beans without Killing ourselfs.. : -D

@HomeImProveMentHow 4 жыл бұрын

My question is when they use solvents to extract the oils from the coffee beans to make it decaffeinated what's the percentage of solvent that is left in the bean that you're now grinding up and drinking who has that answer I look forward to hear from you bye for now God bless Ken

@doctorpurple5173 4 жыл бұрын

they use supercritical CO2 to extract the caffine so no solvent remains in the beans, he did a video trying to do that before this one

@MAXCOBRALAZERFACE 9 жыл бұрын

Blonde roast has more caffeine than a dark roast. I don't know shit about chemistry but I wounder if you could take the black goopy tar bit you mentioned. Mix it with pure alcohol filter it. Evaporate it. & repeat the proses until its pure. Or look up the proses to purify & manufacture cocaine. That proses might work well.. Cool video though Oh also check out the method on refining morning glory seeds. I'm sure that would work.

@Lvl18Meep 8 жыл бұрын

+MAXCOBRALAZERFACE cocaine is made with cocoa leaves, it's an entirely different plant.

@facemouth 8 жыл бұрын

+Heimdallr Gold star for you, smarty pants.

@SirDrinksAlot69 12 жыл бұрын

@kacperciesla I'll be honest, for whatever reason this was pretty easy. I usually need to do a few more steps to track someone down like get their location and associate data from various internet sources to find them. Use the information at hand first, we have his profile which includes name, google+, education. This most of the time is a good place to start but I got lucky on this one, Ben's name appears pretty unique, we know what he looks like and Google appears to love him

@ONEMANUNITX 10 жыл бұрын

I want to exact caffine, in high amounts, with good yeilds, so i can then turn into tablets for fun and such, is there any methods you can propose that will always give me good yeilds? without being to advanced of a setup? thanks

@Schatten2712 10 жыл бұрын

if you want to make tablets out of it then a solvent extraction is not an option, maybe you could use ethyl acetate, a green solvent, it is still hazardous if consumed but utleast it is not a suspected carcinogen... if you want the cafeine to consume then extraction with supercritical co2 is your way to go but that requires some more complex set up... even though, if you just want to get caffeine then there are a lot of improvments that can be done to this extraction like ading calcium hydroxide to give a basic enviroment to the cafeine so it is less soluble in water (also calcium ions reacts with some of the impurities making them insoluble and leaving them behind by filtration) also sodium chloride should be added befor the solvent since it will decrease the afinity of water to caffeine, and also a temperature of cero degrees celcius would be optimal for the extraction. at the end after the purification by sublimation is done a recrystalisation of cafeine under acetone or ethyl acetate would give you very pure cafein, in the amateur chemist comunity there has been guys that have reported a product of white cafeine powder out of tea employees.oneonta.edu/knauerbr/chem226/226expts/226_expt06_pro.pdf faculty.chemeketa.edu/jcammack/CH241-3B%20Lab/CH241B%20Labs/CH241%205%20Caffeine%20Extraction.pdf

@ONEMANUNITX 10 жыл бұрын

Thank you greatly Schatten

@JustinKoenigSilica 10 жыл бұрын

or just buy some purebulk.com/caffeine-powder-synthetic/ www.aonevitamins.com/caffeine.htm

@Schatten2712 10 жыл бұрын

Justin Koenig buying pure caffeine may be illegal in some parts of the world

@JustinKoenigSilica 10 жыл бұрын

Schatten2712 don't think so mate wikipedia: A mild stimulant found in coffee, tea, and soft drinks, among other sources, caffeine is one of the most widely consumed drugs, noted for its ability to promote wakefulness and provide energy. Caffeine is legal in all countries and jurisdictions, and is in modern times sold in over-the-counter medicines, although historically it was banned (often in the form of coffee) in at least several nations.

@Whisper6911 12 жыл бұрын

@MrTurboturbine my guess is it would kill them outright.

@jdsweet3657 11 жыл бұрын

Maybe you could turn it into a chloride salt so the shelf-life would last a long time.

@estbeta 11 жыл бұрын

Red bull! Citric acid +taurine+ginseng extract and a lot more ingredients that are easy to acquire

@EnergeticAdvantage 12 жыл бұрын

Separating funnel technique not ideal - you should be opening the tap every time you invert it to equalise the pressure inside and out, otherwise you can get some pretty sudden and unexpected behavior at the end when you open the tap.