Comment · Wed, January 26, 2022 · ND Owner
Does NAC go bad over time?
Original post in this thread
OGmush88 · 13 points
Left NAC in my room for a few summer months (90 degree room temp). Smells Like sulfur now…is it still okay to take?
What they were answering
Ratharax · 1 points
Interesting, thanks for your reply. I have noticed that there is a smell when I open my bottle, which goes away if I leave it open, but does reappear after I leave it closed for a time again. \[edit: And it hasn't been exposed to moisture, it sits in my closed supplement box, and the air is dry/cool in my house\]. Maybe I'm not leaving it open for long enough or something, but it seems to be new when I open the bottle. In the thread linked in the first reply to the parent comment, where a commenter asked about the smell getting worse, you asked if it had been exposed to moisture. So vis a vis that, it does smell like h2s when it breaks down, like in the presence of moisture, right? It's just that you're saying it also releases H2S or something stinky without oxidation?
I do find it weird that the researchers in the study that I posted above only mention the smell with regards to degradation, because wouldn't their samples have started smelling too? Perhaps this is because of the storage methods or something else that they did, or maybe H2S only gets trapped in the crystal structures if they've been produced via a specific synth route? Might you have any speculations on that? Do you see the impressively minor degradations found in that study reflected in your assay values?
Yes I am afraid I posted the question about dosage without doing the research it was due, you are entire…
u/MisterYouAreSoDumb · ND Owner
We did more rigorous and controlled testing on this to figure it out. The smell eventually stopped coming back after a few months. The H2S is trapped in the crystals from the recrystallization step in the synthesis. Crushing up the crystals with a mortar and pestle releases it, and eventually you get no more smell out of it. If it was a degradation product of the powder itself, you would constantly get more smell being made every time you ground it down again. This is not what happens, though. So you will notice the smell build back up in your bottle, but you wouldn't if you crushed the crystals up and let it air out for longer.
I do think it is based on a specific synthesis route. It's more the recrystallization step in the synthesis route. I think doing a longer and slower recrystallization will prevent it from happening. Quick recrystallization seems to be what is trapping the H2S in the crystals. If you changed up that part of the synthesis to let the H2S evaporate out of the solution before the crystals form, you would avoid that issue.