Vapourizing in nitrogen.

[Qbit]

I read an interesting post on another vape forum by an organic chemist, who suggested that if the herb was heated in nitrogen it would prevent oxidation, and so it should be possible to do high-temp (and thus full-spectrum) vaping without unwanted by-products of the pyrolysis.

Here's the post:

http://www.marijuana.com/vaporizers/139977-organic-chemist-ask-me-anything.html#post1260691

Since nitrogen (a gas) makes up 75% of the atmosphere, it's not harmful, though if you were to inhale it pure I'm sure it would make you pass out. So a convection system might be tricky, unless you have an oxygen inlet downstream of the bowl.

But with a clever bit of engineering it might be possible to rig up a conduction system with a chamber that fills with nitrogen before heating the herb, and then cools the herb (or dumps it) before the vapour is to be inhaled.

Any thoughts?

 

[tdavie]

In theory yeah, it sounds possible. When I was a grad student, I used to run all of my syntheses in nitrogen, but it was an entirely closed system. Nitrogen constantly flushing through the system.

If you could separate the vaporization process from the inhalation process, that would be impressive. You would have to purge the nitrogen though, in my opinion, and then how do you keep the vaporized compounds from escaping? Or cool down, open a carb, and then draw in air which will keep you from passing out. Then I would worry about excessive condensation of the vaporized compounds.

But, some of us do not want full spectrum vaporization. I generally prefer to avoid a lot of the more sedating compounds that would vaporize at higher temperatures.

Tom