Sciencemadness Discussion Board

"Mineral spirits"

Arcuritech - 19-8-2012 at 20:49

I have a can of liquid intended for use as paint thinner rather unhelpfuly labeled "oderless mineral spirits". I desolved a small amount of I2 in it forming a very purple solution which resembled permanganate in water. Becoming more curious, I scaned the back label and found that it contained petrolium distilates, so my question is this:

Can it be safely assumed that because it is nonpolar (the purple I2 soln.) and the label says petroliom distilates, it is mostly CxH2x+2 where x is somewhere around 10?

Lambda-Eyde - 19-8-2012 at 23:28

What you have is probably as nonpolar as it gets. Does the label say anything about the boiling range and how it has been treated (desulfurization, hydrogenation etc.)? Aromatics content?

Arcuritech - 20-8-2012 at 03:10

The label says nothing more than what i posted, and nothing about how it was prosessed. It apperes relitively high boiling and non-volatile, and I'm not sure about the aromatics or sulfur content. Do you know any simple tests for that? Perhaps Burn it and look for a SO2 smell?

hyfalcon - 20-8-2012 at 03:13

Type (Name of Product)(maker of product)(msds)(pdf) into google and see if it doesn't pull up the info on your product.