Mixing Solvent Into The Soup - How Hard?

Observations so far ...

Mixing aims to spread the solvent around and about every part of the root material soup in order to maximise the transfer of the dissolved Purity Flakes across to the solvent. The DpTek1 recommends doing this as quickly as possible but not so vigorously to risk problems like emulsions or spillages.

Some root batches appear to produce severe emulsions with barely any agitation whilst others seem almost emulsion proof. So if you have a new batch of root, start off very gently until you have an idea of how hard you can shake/stir without emulsions forming. You will still definitely need to agitate it sufficiently well to get the solvent to all parts of the base soup or your yield will drop dramatically

Suggested Media Bottle Shaking.mp4

Problems with mixing too fast/vigorously

Increased risk of spillage/leakage
Layers of solvent/soup can take longer and may need additional techniques to fully separate again
Emulsions (one or more layers of oily bubbles at the soup/solvent interface) can be created which will trap a high proportion of solvent and potentially be very difficult to break. Note - a bright torch will likely be needed to spot an emulsion, the pic was taken with aid of a very bright light

Important: separation problems/emulsions appear much less forgiving with conical shaped (i.e. Erlenmeyer) flasks than a wider, non-tapering container. It's as if the bubbles of rising solvent are compacted together and slow to a standstill as they rise into the smaller area. As such, much greater mixing care is advisable when using these containers.

An emulsion, the typical result of over-zealous mixing, especially if using an erlenmeyer flask. This pic was taken 4 hours after the initial mixing and the usual emulsion-busting techniques tried/failed

So just how hard should I mix?

It may be preferable to become familiar with using a manual stirring rod as described on this page. Extra care might be wise if using power-operated mixing tools such as magnetic drill-mounted ptfe stirring rods

From ML's experience, susceptibility of emulsion/separation problems also depends upon the viscosity of the mix and the type of mixing vessel in use. Thicker mixes (caused by using over 75g of root, and/or excessive salt/lye) and/or tapered Erlenmeyer flasks will tolerate less vigorous mixing.

If using a wider, non-tapered 2L vessle like one pictured opposite (not necessarily recommended) or a media bottle (reagent bottle) then in ML's experience this will tolerate a more vigorous mixing.

We're aiming to link to mixing demo videos, but in the meantime the advice is aim to get the solvent properly around every part of the soup, but be aware of the potential problems of overdoing it.

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