Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Purify chloroxylenol from dettol

shaheerniazi - 26-11-2013 at 04:04

Is there any way I can separate the chloroxylenol from dettol liquid because it has many oils and impurities, is evaporaing it a good idea?

watson.fawkes - 26-11-2013 at 05:58

Quote: Originally posted by shaheerniazi  
Is there any way I can separate the chloroxylenol from dettol liquid [...]
Separations require knowledge of what the target material is being separated from. What exactly is in Dettol? Don't expect anybody here to look it up for you. Go research the composition of this product, then come back and post the materials and percentages. An MSDS will list only some of the materials, the hazardous ones; you'll need other sources to determine the rest.
<hr/>bfesser moderator expellendus est

woelen - 26-11-2013 at 05:59

If you want to start doing chemistry, I would steer away from this type of products which has a complicated and largely unknown mix of chemicals in it. You cannot expect useful and easy to interpret results with such products.

If I were you, I should make an inventory of what pure chemicals you can find in and around the house and do experiments with that. For the rest, if possible, buy yourself a basic set of chemicals and a few real test tubes (16 mm diameter, standard format). Chemicals like copper sulfate, alum, 10% hydrochloric acid, sodium hydroxide, sodium carbonate should not be difficult to find and are not expensive. eBay is a very good source for many inexpensive simple chemicals. Maybe you can ask your parents to buy a basic set of chemicals.
In your case, a few graphite rods for electrolysis experiments would be nice too. You can get them from zinc-batteries (the old-fashioned non-alkaline type), the big 1.5 volt batteries contain nice rods, even better are the 4R25 6 volt batteries, these contain 4 big rods.

shaheerniazi - 26-11-2013 at 06:26

Watson.fawkes:

Dettol has 4.8%Chloroxylenol in it and the rest is pine oil, isopropanol, castor oil, soap and water

Woelen: Thank you, I think I should start taking chemicals from my school lab even!!

bfesser - 26-11-2013 at 06:30

No. That is theft. Try asking for them.

shaheerniazi - 26-11-2013 at 06:33

I didnt mean theft, I meant to give provide me chemicals with permission!:) or let me do stuff in their lab.

ScienceSquirrel - 26-11-2013 at 06:42

This would be fairly easy in a good laboratory.
Add dilute sulphuric acid to the Dettol until it is strongly acidic.
Extract with ether and dry.
Remove the ether on the rotavap.
Chromatograph the crude product.
But if you can do the above you can probably buy the chloroxylenol anyway so it is only useful to practice your technique.

shaheerniazi - 26-11-2013 at 06:51

Thanks, but will evaporation work?

ScienceSquirrel - 26-11-2013 at 07:42

No
You are going to be left with the pine oil, castor oil soap and caramel mixed in with your chloroxylenol because they are not very volatile.
Evaporation only really works if you have a single pure substance in a solvent.
Sea water is mostly sodium chloride in water, evaporation produces sea salt which is mainly sodium chloride but it does contain traces of other elements eg magnesium and potassium. I find sel gris, grey salt which is crude sea salt, slightly bitter and more saltly than pure sodium chloride. The residual liquor in the salt pans is very bitter as it contains quite a lot of sodium sulphate..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_salt#Taste

[Edited on 26-11-2013 by ScienceSquirrel]

shaheerniazi - 26-11-2013 at 07:49

and can we use fractional distillation except rotary evaporation because I dont think a rotary evaporator will be available in my lab?

BlackDragon2712 - 26-11-2013 at 07:51

ahahhahahaha I laugh at the last question, because it was like an entire thread for a question that finally was with no answer ahaha...
[question changed xd]
evaporation may work only to eliminate the water and the alcohol out of it but the oils will not come out that easy and if they do they'll drag some of the compound with them.


Also for being only in a 4% it's not worth it, it's better to buy it, even if you have to order it online, chloroxylenol it's not either a dangerous or flamable compound so you shouldn't have problems buying it. but it would still be an interesting extraction to try out.

btw, can I ask why do you want it for? or just want it for the fun of it?

[Edited on 06/11/2013 by BlackDragon2712]

BlackDragon2712 - 26-11-2013 at 07:57

the problem with doing a distillation of these compounds is that you'll have to heat them so high that water cooling would be dangerous for your equipment, also for a 5%, a lot of the compound will be lost in the process. your best option is a solvent extraction

shaheerniazi - 26-11-2013 at 08:43

Yup I will do it for fun:D

MrHomeScientist - 26-11-2013 at 08:52

Quote: Originally posted by woelen  
In your case, a few graphite rods for electrolysis experiments would be nice too. You can get them from zinc-batteries (the old-fashioned non-alkaline type), the big 1.5 volt batteries contain nice rods, even better are the 4R25 6 volt batteries, these contain 4 big rods.

Another great source for graphite rods I've found is stirring rods for metallurgy. Search for "graphite stirring rods" and there's tons of auctions. I used two in my electrolytic production of bromine which ran for 26 hours, and there was practically zero attack on the rods. Sometimes the ones you can get from batteries fall apart during electrolysis, probably due to the binder material that holds them together. These stirring rods are great.

shaheerniazi - 26-11-2013 at 08:58

I mostly have used rods from zinc-carbon batteries but what about pencil leads, They will work even.

BlackDragon2712 - 26-11-2013 at 12:33

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McMQN0aY5Mw someone will find this interesting xd