Extracting (almost pure) Caffeine from Caffeine Pills.

DON'T DO THIS IF YOU ARE NOT 100% SURE THAT THE SOLVENT YOUR USING EVAPORATES COMPLETELY LEAVING NO TOXIC RESIDUE!

ALSO, CAFFEINE IS TOXIC IN HIGH DOSES. (SEE COMMENTS FOR DETAILS)

So let's say you want to make caffeinated muffins, caffeinated peanut butter, or even caffeinated Chap Stick. That means you're going to need some caffeine. Sadly, pure caffeine isn't something you can just buy at your corner store but you can, however, but caffeine pills. In this Instructable I'll be using Maximum Strength NoDoz. The bottle states that each pill contains 200 mg. of caffeine so it will be perfect for this process.

Some may ask "Why not just crush up the pills and use as is?”
If you have ever tasted a caffeine pill (or any solid pill for that matter), you’d know why. The taste is unpleasant and it carries through to the flavor of the food.

With this process, it allows us to do away with the parts of the pill that we don’t want to deal with.

Inactive Ingredients:
Benzoic Acid, Corn Starch,FD&C Blue 1,
Hydroxypropyl Methylcellulose, Microcrystalline Cellulose,
Mineral Oil, Polysorbate 20, Povidone, Propylene Glycol,
Simethicone Emulsion, Sorbitan Monolaurate, Stearic Acid,
Sucrose, Titanium Dioxide.

Since we will be using denatured alcohol as our solvent, we have to analyze these substances to see what else will be dissolved. By searching through the MSDS records, I have that list here.

Soluble in Ethanol or Methanol:
Caffeine, Benzoic Acid, FD&C Blue 1, Povidone.

Some of these are soluble in Methanol but since the solvent is > 4% Methanol their concentrations in the solution will be low (their concentrations are already low and shouldn’t be enough to effect taste). This is true except for caffeine which is soluble in alcohol and will be in high concentration (just like we want).

Having that been said, lets start with the parts list.

Step 1: Parts List

Parts:

A clean pane of glass.
This will be your working surface.

Caffeine Pills
I used NoDoz but any should work.

A mortar and pestle.
Used for crushing pills but any crushing mechanism should be fine.

Eye dropper.
You could use a pipette or straw.

A solvent.
Use 100% alcohol because caffeine dissolves in alcohol.

A lamp.
To see

A razer.
For scraping crystals off of the pane of glass. Key Lime not necessary.

Make sure you're in a well ventilated area.

Comments

[distortedlabs]

what about 99% rubbing alcohol?

[LiquidLightning]

Is it isopropyl? Yes it will work, but careful to evaporate all of it, it is fairly toxic.

[rolfit]

Whats next? Meth!!!!!

[LiquidLightning]

Lol, the classic, "if you are doing something with chemicals I don't understand, it must be meth!"

[badfrog]

Let's see... you say use 100% alcohol. According to Sunnyside Corporation (225 Carpenter Ave, Wheeling, IL), the product you are using is: "85.7% Ethyl Alcohol, 3.6% Methyl Alcohol, 1.9% Methyl Isobutyl Ketone, 1.0% Methyl Acetate, and 0.8% Solvent Naphtha (Petroleum) Light Alliphatic" When they say "denatured" they mean "rendered toxic and/or unpalatable" (read: bitter) Aside from neglecting the fact caffeine is probably the most bitter substance you'll encounter in a caffeine tablet, you've also overlooked the chances of introducing something like Bitrex (denatonium benzoate) from a denatured alcohol solvent -- a real concern. This is really a pointless exercise in Meth Lab 101 and should not be considered safe to produce or consume.

[LiquidLightning]

ALL, of those ingredients will evaporate completely. I don't exactly see the problem. If his denatured alcohol contains denatonium benzoate, a quick simple distillation will remove all traces of it.

[jamesccostello]

That's a really bad idea. First off, I don't mean to be rude, I mean to be informative, and to give a few words of caution. I cannot attest to this process's viability, but as previous commenters have pointed out, denatured alcohol is not a safe substance to consume. Also, caffeine is a drug, and in its pure form extreme caution should be taken while using it. It is extremely difficult to accurately dose the drug in it's pure form, and doing so requires accurate, calibrated milligram scales. On the tip of your finger, you can fit the amount of caffeine necessary to overdose. In addition to this, as a caffeine source, nodoz is a horribly expensive source. Pure caffeine can be had for cheap online. 400g of Pharmaceutical grade caffeine (about 3,300-8,000 cups of coffee worth) cost me $12. I like the idea of paying LESS to make sure my caffeine is safe. Oh, and while pure caffeine "isn't something you can just buy at your corner store" it is available at my local nutrition store, a less than 10 minute drive from my house, albeit it is quite expensive.

[LiquidLightning]

You aren't drinking the denatured alcohol, it evaporates away completely. A safe method could be just extracting 2 or 3 pills at a time. This says nothing about price.

So now, how is this a bad idea?

[snowmoonbear]

Firstly, the above comment people are dippy. :P Use 90% alcohol or everclear, this method is completely safe and highly recommended for any substance you want to extract. Keep alcohol away from flame and wear disposable gloves when handling any extracted substance. Also pyrex baking dishes are used instead of pane of glass to prevent loss of product. As with everything read up on dosages of the substance you are extracting and use a accurate gram/mgram scale.

[LiquidLightning]

Alcohol won't extract anything. Also the water in it could hydrolyze lots of things.

[dammat]

This method definately is not safe. If you use pure grain alcohol as a solvent it would be much better. Also if you have a mel-temp melting point apparatus you can test the purity of your caffeine. caffeine melts at 237 degrees Celcius.

[LiquidLightning]

Why isn't it safe? The methanol is the only other ingredient in his brand of denatured alcohol.

[nobody_95]

Good job, but how i can get pure caffeine powder from normal coffee??

[kortez617]

You'll need sodium carbonate and a non-polar solvent, such as methylene chloride. add 1g sodium carbonate to 100ml coffee and add an equal amount of MC. the caffeine and some other alkaloids dissolve in the MC while everything else stays in the water, collect and evaporate the MC and youre left with pretty pure caffeine ;]

[LiquidLightning]

Not pretty pure, but far purer than coffee is. If you go on to sublime it onto a cold surface, THEN you'll have pretty pure!

[skylane]

METHANOL IS POISONOUS and can NOT be made non-poisonous. Just the fumes can be deadly and will also cause brain damage. Non reparable. It's absoultly not worth the risk. Ethanol, however... now we're talkin... Evercear comes in 75% and 95%. 95% is not available in all states. Oregon and Nevada have it.. The 75% can be found in BevMo in Calif. I cannot tell you how effective these will be, but DO NOT USE METHANOL Even denatured alcohol IS POISONOUS. And cannot be made non poisonous. That is because, otherwise it would be ethanol and would have to have the federal alcohol taxes added on. that would increase the price about 5X.

[LiquidLightning]

It evaporates completely during the procedure. Lighten up with your misinformed assumed knowledge.

[vaxjo]

You should add a disclaimer about the LD50 of caffeine to the Instructable text (from Wikipedia: the LD50 of caffeine is about 150mg per kg of body mass: a potentially lethal dose for me, a 75 kg male, would be around 12 grams, which is exactly how much is in a standard cannister of NoDoz). Crushed and purified this would fill only a small vial. An unknowning person might not realize the potency of the drug and, deciding to give his coffee a big kick, might just dump it all in.

Also, would it be possibly to use ethyl alcohol as the solvent? If you can get it, 191 proof Everclear contains the maximum amount of ethyl alcohol available through the non-toxic distillation process. This might be safer than using potentially toxic denatured alcohol.

That said, I believe I'll now go brew up a cup of coffee. The natural way!

[Shark500]

My particular Denatured alcohol is considered "Denatured" because it contains > 4% alcohol. it also leaves no residue when dried on it's own on the glass. Some denatured alcohols do contain toxic or unwanted substances such as: syrup of ipecac wood naptha mineral naptha denatonium pyridine my denatured alcohol does not induce vomiting or have a bad smell. methanol is non-toxic but it metabolizes into some nasty carcinogens. using 191 proof "95.5%" ethanol would work but that 4.5% water you may be dissolving more than what you want. a note that caffeine IS water soluble and even more so if it's boiling but it almost negates this process. GO COFFEE!

[skylane]

Shark, METHANOL IS TOXIC! It cannot be made non toxic. It can and will cause brain damage and or death. Denatured alcohol is poisonous. "denatured" means that they took the "natural alcohol" and poisoned it so it cannot be consumed. Any carcinogens it may have or create would be the least of one's worrys.... You might consider editing your comment or deleting it, regarding the methanol...

[LiquidLightning]

Gahh, methanol is totally non toxic (atleast as non toxic as regular alcohol), and you will even get drunk off of it the same as ethanol. However, 12-24 hours later, after your body has metabolized the methanol to formaldehyde, you will get very sick, go blind, and/or die.

[fUkyURlifE]

COULD YOU USE REGULAR ALCOHOL AS OPPOSED TO DENATURED ALCOHOL AS YOUR SOLVENT?

[LiquidLightning]

Denatured alcohol is just ethanol (drinking alcohol) generally at 95% concentration. It has denaturants added (stuff like methanol, etc) to make it toxic to drink. So, yeah, regular alcohol will work. Clear as possible, like clear vodka, or everclear. No flavorants if possible.

[LiquidLightning]

Some are also about 50-50 methanol ethanol. Also might be a few percent hexone.

[walkingreject]

Actually, pure caffeine is readily available online. For example, United Nuclear sells 100% pure caffeine powder in quantities of 2, 4, and 8 ounces, which is enough to last you a very very long time.

[LiquidLightning]

Ah but no self satisfaction from extracting it yourself.

[somefilename]

Is it possible to use acetone?

[LiquidLightning]

Look up the solubility of the other ingredients in acetone, caffeine in acetone, etc.

[simonnomis]

It's much easier to just buy cheap caffeine powder in pure form already.

[Roflolommo]

agreed but i think united nuclear has cheaper 
5 bucks for 2 ounces (about 60 grams)
id be nervous having that around though 2 grams is enough to make your caffeine high very unpleasant and around 20 grams is enough to kill a 100 kilogram guy like me.

[clockfort]

The caffeine from united nuclear is not food-grade.

[LiquidLightning]

So?

[rchallender]

Hidy --

Very interesting!
But you can now buy caffeine powder on amazon.com too.

[jmcdermott]

i guess ive tired this step and i can come to a conclusion on what this man means by two layers. this is not working not to mention he is very broad about the details of the experiment

[kevingibson0]

Due to the fact the the dye is soluble, "clear" will mean no longer cloudy, instead of colorless.
More or less you will want to wait for any of the insoluble particulate matter to settle to the bottom of the solution. This is easier to do if you pour the solution out of the mortar and into a small beaker (or smooth piece of kitchenware, such as a shotglass, if you do not have access to laboratory glassware).

[weaponscollector94]

use Everclear or vodka

[legionlabs]

A funnier title for this would be "Decaffeinating caffeine pills". For people who enjoy the classic taste of caffeine pills, but dislike the high!

More seriously, small amounts of methyl alcohol are in fact present in most fermented beverages... but if you want to purify the results of this extraction anyway, you could perform a fractional recrystallization in distilled water. Basically, you dissolve the results of the previous step in as little boiling water as possible, then evaporate out a little water, then let it cool. The caffeine will crystallize out of solution before other substances will. It still won't be 100% pure but it will be closer, as the solubility of benzoic acid is greater in water than caffeine so it is less likely to precipitate. As an added bonus it is sort of cool to watch.

If it refuses to crystallize and you are using a glass container, scratch the bottom lightly with a metal implement to provide a nucleation site (this happened to me once)

[megafeltch]

methanol is 100% safe to use for extraction as long as you let it all evaporate!!! just like when water evaporates, there is nothing left.
the only problem is some denatured alcohol has other additives that are toxic. so when doing this make sure that your alcohol is a mix of ethanol and methanol and nothing else. 

[struckbyanarrow]

i have the same ones 100% caffeiene!

[me7977]

You can do the same thing with just regular water, caffeine dissolves in water. Just boil a little water, pour onto the crushed pills and stir it well. Decant the water onto your evaporation surface and let it dry. It probably won't be as pure, but it's a lot cleaner and easier. Also you could do it again to purify it.