*Either ammonia or naOH should work OK to get the morph to precipiatate when adjusting the ph.
*BUT - only the naoh (more common Ca(OH)2) and not ammonia will work to form the SOLUBLE phenolate salt. ie when doing the reaction flooding you need naoh or ca(oh)2 not ammonia(aq).
* you may well get morph in the precipitate at ph8.5 (your original post)and not only at ph9 - if you filter at 8.5 then check the filtrate for this might be the goodies.
*a suggestion - instead of using the phenolate soluble form try extracting using an acid.
*this is crude and simple - dont boot it - but it should tell you whether you are getting any morph out of the reaction.
*try it with a small ammount of the left over reaction material first - so you dont waste stuff.
*simple extraction - flood reaction with aqueous hcl, filter out any solid residue (coffee filter papers), and then raise ph to 9 with ammonia. forget trying to extract with np (chloroform). just leave it to cool overnight and see if the morph precipitates out at ph9 (monitor the ph). if this works you should have a fair idea that you have the goodies - and can then work on refining the purification - ie into np, recrystalisation etc, reclaiming unreacted codeine.
