How To Isolate Splenda

Step 5 Evaporate! Isolate!

Pour the filtered solvent/splenda mixture into a wide container and place in a well-ventilated area for a few days. The solvent will evaporate, leaving behind a thin film of pure sucralose. This stuff is so sweet, even sniffing it deeply will make your mouth water.

If you have access to lab equipment (or perhaps the MOST AWESOME KITCHEN EVER), you can cheat and strip the solvent off using a rotary evaporator, like I did.

I'm sure the question you're asking yourself is - can I taste it? If you used everclear, oh yes. It will be quite an experience. If you used isopropanol, it might be clean enough to sample - a little won't kill you. If you used acetone, I wouldn't recommend eating it.

Enjoy!

Comments

[rhangatoby]

wait, if we shouldnt eat it if we used acetone, then why use acetone?

[sijmad]

Is acetone is a "non polar" solvent? That is strange!!

[Mongpoovian]

Well, it's non-polar compared to water. In the total spectrum of solvents it would be considered closer to the polar end, but you can't buy ether or benzene at the hardware store.

[DeusXMachina]

Sure you can! Ether comes in the aerosol engine starter fluid cans. And while you can't find benzene, you can use toluene or xylene, which are effectively the same in terms of hydrophobic properties.

[Arano]

you should not use benzene, as it causes cancer. toluene is does not (or at least there is no proof it does).

[Mongpoovian]

I'm not sure if toluene or benzene would work as well, they might be too far into nonpolar territory to really dissolve the sucralose. Plus, the boiling point of toluene is prohibitively high, so it would take days to remove all the solvent residue from your product.

Looking into the patents for sucralose, it looks like ethyl acetate is the solvent of choice for dissolution or extraction - now all we have to do is find a way to purify it from nail polish remover...

[Arano]

boilingpoint does not matter very much... its more about vapor pressure... and for your acethone its about a quarter atm at 20°C so all your acethone will vaporise very quick, as long as the acethone-vapor has no partial pressure of a quarter atm.

[Pie Ninja]

Instead of Everclear would it be possible to use pure ethanol?

[delphinkid]

Everclear is essentially just ethanol in itself, so pure ethanol would work.

[Pie Ninja]

sweeeeet. (quite literally, actually :P)

[montdor1]

Kitchen chemistry heaven. My question, and I mean this deeply and only in the spirit of information, is if there are any psychoactive properties to pure sucralose. And what are some uses for it? Is it a precursor to anything worthwhile, whatever that means?

[delphinkid]

No, sucralose is basically ordinary household sugar but with a few substituted chlorine atoms. If you could convert it back to sucrose or another sugar I suppose you could use it to make ethanol, but that would be a really inefficient way of doing it.

[die_dunkelheit]

Are you concerned about any impurity left behind by the acetone?

[Mongpoovian]

Yes. I didn't taste the batch I made in the lab, both because I didn't use new glassware and the prospect of accidentally ingesting whatever's left over from technical grade acetone concerned me.

[ragemaxis]

if you did this in a quantified way i.e. with like 30lbs of raw incredient, such that you got more than a few grams of raw product - any number of different one or two-solvent crystallizations would work really well. take two co-miscible solvents that the substance is soluble in - particularily if they have a dramatically different solubility at varied temps. Dissolve substance in solvent A at high temp such that you have a little solid left at the bottom, add a drop of HOT solvent A to make it totally dissolved, drop in a speck of substance (if possible), a couple drops of miscible solvent (if desired) then cover with saran wrap and have cool as slowly as possible. If all goes well you will end up with big nasty evil looking crystals which you can then extract, filter under vacuum, dry out completely and use for your bidding. May not work with this though...

[Mongpoovian]

Interesting idea! If I ever come across that many splenda packets, I'll have to give it a shot!

[ragemaxis]

you can go to bulk barn and buy it by the kg. there is always a solution, just ask your favorite hillbilly buddy, he can tell you how to turn anything into anything if you can handle a little you don't want to know left in it.

[jeff-o]

I've always wondered what that gadget does. Now I know! Can I get one at Home Outfitters? j/k ;)

[Mongpoovian]

Haha, I wish! They do show up pretty often on eBay, though...