An excellent point. Your reply also provided SWID with the courage to go on.
The solution was filtered, the tan material set aside to dry. The filtered solution was then titrated slowly with IPA sat. with HCl. To SWIDs utter amazement, on about the third addition, crystals began to form!
He titrated a bit more, getting more of the hair-like fine crystals precipitating, and watching the pH closely. Although the pH didn't go down, he decided to stop titrating on an instinctive urge, and stuck the flask into the freezer. Time to wait. After filtration, he can always titrate more, and he is afraid that if the pH hits a certain amount, all that blood red (ketone? nitrostyrene?) some-kind-of-asarone-derivitive will polymerize into inextractable crap.
Anybody got a clue what this tan material is? Looks like quite a few grams...some kind of zinc complex or something?
(2 hours later)
Well, after sticking it in the fridge, more crap precipitated...this time after filtering, the stuff on the filter is a dark chocolate brown. The mixture was titrated again, with the formation of more crystals, and after a while these were filtered and washed with fresh anhyd. IPA. Nice white crystals on the watch glass. SWID went to titrate again (it was taking forever), and since he was almost out of his pre-gassed IPA, he picked up the flask to pour the last in. Then, then he noticed it. The bottom of the fucking flask (that contained the gassed IPA) was covered in fine, hair-like crystals. SWID isn't sure what the hell he has been desperately trying to save, but is reasonable sure it isn't TMA-2. No, the dropper which was used to transfer liquid from one flask to the other never touched the supposed TMA containing liquid. It makes no damn sense. The pre-gassed IPA was created by seperating it with table salt, then drying over baked magnesium sulfate, then bubbling dry hydrogen chloride gas in. (Made by the action of sulfuric on muriatic-wetted sodium chloride, and passed through a 500mL flask filled with calcium chloride.)
(Half an hour later)
The tan material is nearly completely dry (dry to the touch, still a slight hint smell of IPA). It weighs 4g currently. It is a very powdery substance, and SWID recently noticed that it "sparkles" when wobbled around (at angles to a light that would produce refractions, if that makes any damn sense.) Could this maybe, just possibly be very impure TMA-2? The second filter, the dark chocolate colored one, is also almost dry, but has turned into some nastly looking tar-like substance.
SWID supposes the only proper test for the tan substance would to be to put it through an acid-base extraction.
Suggestions are always appreciated.
EDIT: burn-test on aluminum foil. The tan precipitate didnt burn clean, but it did vaporize, leaving a black spot. The crystals from the HCl+IPA flask are clearly an inorganic salt, remaining almost unchanged on aluminum foil with a butane flame underneath.