Sciencemadness Discussion Board - Poll: Which solvent smells the best?

Poll: Which solvent smells the best?

Amos - 11-3-2015 at 14:41

A debate between a few members and I needs to be put to rest. Which of these solvents smells the best, in your opinion? If you're not familiar with all of them, just pick from the ones you have smelled.

alexleyenda - 11-3-2015 at 14:54

"Acetone" and "Acetic acid", why are these even in the poll x) There are 6 out of 23 I never smelled but so far Ethyl acetate is not bad.

gdflp - 11-3-2015 at 15:04

Quote: Originally posted by alexleyenda

"Acetone" and "Acetic acid", why are these even in the poll x) There are 6 out of 23 I never smelled but so far Ethyl acetate is not bad.

Hahaha, I'm the opposite of you I guess. I don't mind acetone, and acetic acid doesn't smell bad, it just has a harsh odor. Ethyl acetate is probably one of my least favorite, I really dislike it. I personally chose carbon tetrachloride, I've only gotten a small whiff when transferring from one bottle to another, and it's not bad, a little sweeter than chloroform.

diddi - 11-3-2015 at 15:22

AMOS, I THINK YOU ARE BEING VERY IRRESPONSIBLE TO GET SM MEMBERS TO SNIFF SOLVENTS. DONT YOU KNOW THAT THEY ARE CARCINOGENS AND POISONOUS. MY TEACHERS HAVE ALWAYS TOLD ME NEVER TO SNIFF ANY CHEMICALS BECAUSE YOU DONT KNOW IF THEY ARE HARMFUL. I HAVE A GOOD MIND TO REPORT YOU TO BERT

gdflp - 11-3-2015 at 15:38

I hope you're trolling diddi. As you should know from working with solvents, it's nearly impossible not to get a whiff now and then. And I knew in my gut that someone was going to say that I was going to get cancer from getting a whiff of CCl₄, and you have hit that nerve.(Though I personally thought it would be Cou, no offense)

Etaoin Shrdlu - 11-3-2015 at 15:41

I hope that second to last post is some kind of meme.

I'm going to go with isopropanol because it conjures memories.

[Edited on 3-11-2015 by Etaoin Shrdlu]

diddi - 11-3-2015 at 15:58

its an in joke

no trolling from me...

BromicAcid - 11-3-2015 at 16:37

There was a large acetic acid spill at my work one time. I helped to clean it up, the person I was working with kept complaining that the smell was sickening, but the more I cleaned the more I craved a salad. Different folks, different effects. I like acetic acid, but it's got nothing on ether.

chem_haruka - 11-3-2015 at 16:51

Pyridine,smells 'best'

alexleyenda - 11-3-2015 at 16:52

Quote: Originally posted by BromicAcid

the more I cleaned the more I craved a salad.

ahahahahahah

So many people voted for ether. I expected that, ether is not too bad, but I find it quite "aggressive". Not harsh, just kind of too intense. Anyway it looks like there are many differend kind of people here x) It seems benzene is great but it is one of the 6 I never smelled.

Amos - 11-3-2015 at 17:13

See, I knew it'd be surprising. From talking with other members I've gathered that people's senses of smell really vary widely; I think a lot of it has to do with nostalgia or experience.

battoussai114 - 11-3-2015 at 17:19

Yeaahhh, I'm going with water.

BTW, how different are n-Propanol and Isopropanol smells?

Amos - 11-3-2015 at 18:28

Quote: Originally posted by battoussai114

Yeaahhh, I'm going with water.

BTW, how different are n-Propanol and Isopropanol smells?

Ah, that's no fun. I haven't actually smelled the straight-chain isomer, but I believe it is more mild and ethanol-like.

Bert - 11-3-2015 at 20:16

Quote: Originally posted by diddi

AMOS, I THINK YOU ARE BEING VERY IRRESPONSIBLE TO GET SM MEMBERS TO SNIFF SOLVENTS. DONT YOU KNOW THAT THEY ARE CARCINOGENS AND POISONOUS. MY TEACHERS HAVE ALWAYS TOLD ME NEVER TO SNIFF ANY CHEMICALS BECAUSE YOU DONT KNOW IF THEY ARE HARMFUL. I HAVE A GOOD MIND TO REPORT YOU TO BERT

Don't bother, he's too wasted from all the test-and-compare this thread led to-

I kind of like amyl acetate, personally... Good associations from childhood. Hoppes #9!

http://www.copquest.com/knowledgebase/MSDS_Hoppes_No_9_Solve...

[Edited on 12-3-2015 by Bert]

diddi - 11-3-2015 at 20:42

@gdflp - you don't know how funny your reply is

joke relates to a Skype discussion

Volanschemia - 11-3-2015 at 20:44

2-Propanol for me.
I haven't smelled very many solvents though I must say.
If Diethyl Phthalate were on the list I would have picked that. :cool:

Quote: Originally posted by chem_haruka

Pyridine,smells 'best'

I hope you are joking

!

[Edited on 12-3-2015 by TheAustralianScientist]

woelen - 12-3-2015 at 00:29

I have smelled all of them, and only pyridine is offensive for me.

I voted for chloroform (sweetish smell, but quite "heavy"), but in reality nearly all solvents are quite neutral to me. There are only very few pure chemicals which I find smelling bad, but there also are very few chemicals which I find smelling really good. Most of them I do not dislike, nor particularly like.

Of the list, given above, pyridine is offensive to me and n-propanol is a tad on the bad side. Its smell is quite different from the smell of iso-propanol. It is somewhere between rancid butter and iso-propanol.

Benzene and toluene have nearly identical smells to me.

There is one other solvent, not mentioned above, which smells bad to me and that is 1-hexene. This has a strong smell which reminds me of the smell of a dirty oil-refinery factory.

Pasrules - 12-3-2015 at 00:52

Mmm acetone, chemist's water.
However today in the lab we had 50 students washing a tris(en)cobalt chloride complex with diethylether, i managed to finish up before a cloud started to form.

hyfalcon - 12-3-2015 at 04:11

Quote: Originally posted by Bert

Quote: Originally posted by diddi

Always wondered why I liked the smell of that one myself.

This and WD-40.

deltaH - 12-3-2015 at 04:26

I personally find the smell of EtOAc repulsive, but I've heard some people find it pleasant. Out of the list, THF is my favourite.

Atrum - 12-3-2015 at 08:16

Quote: Originally posted by deltaH

I personally find the smell of EtOAc repulsive, but I've heard some people find it pleasant. Out of the list, THF is my favourite.

I don't mind acetic acid personally, but I know a guy who will vomit if he gets a strong whiff of it. He really hated it when I was making sodiun acetate by boiling down the solution in our appartment haha.

Metacelsus - 12-3-2015 at 10:13

Water smells best.

Loptr - 12-3-2015 at 12:56

I put water as well.

I would rather not be smelling something in my flask... I don't know what it will do to me in the long run.

Eddygp - 12-3-2015 at 13:29

Ethyl acetate, diethyl ether, chloroform are all quite good. Chloroform is the best.

WHO ON EARTH VOTED FOR TOLUENE? Come on, that smells horrible!

Etaoin Shrdlu - 12-3-2015 at 13:34

I'm amused by how chloroform skyrocketed just now.

Come on, toluene isn't bad. Xylene gives me a bitch of a headache though. I tried to carry an open 5-gallon bucket of it without a respirator once - this was a wretched mistake to say the least.

Amos - 12-3-2015 at 13:49

Quote: Originally posted by Etaoin Shrdlu

I'm amused by how chloroform skyrocketed just now.

It seemed to happen just after woelen mentioned he voted for it. Hmm...

UC235 - 12-3-2015 at 14:42

Well, I voted for chloroform, because it's my favorite on the list (can't comment if CCl4 is better or not). Ethyl acetate is nice too, but I get very sick of the smell quickly.

And for anyone who voted for pyridine,

Mabus - 12-3-2015 at 15:06

While I too like chloroform, I voted dichloromethane as I find it less poignant (to me at least) and it's less hazardous. THF and ethers are too strong smelling, though I find them more bearable than ethyl acetate.

Molecular Manipulations - 12-3-2015 at 16:36

I love chloroform, if you build an ammunity to it its not dangerous at all. Just ask all the junkies who get high on it.

Amos - 13-3-2015 at 09:40

Quote: Originally posted by Molecular Manipulations

I love chloroform, if you build an ammunity to it its not dangerous at all. Just ask all the junkies who get high on it.

wut

nezza - 13-3-2015 at 13:01

"Pyridine,smells 'best'". I can't believe that. I know smell is subjective but it is one of the most unpleasant things I have smelt in the lab.

kecskesajt - 14-3-2015 at 06:53

Xylene <3.If it wont be toxic I will smell it all day long...

karlos³ - 24-3-2015 at 04:19

I voted for DMSO, because i like the sweet smell of it, not the technical grade, with nearly always dimethylsulfide in it... bad stench...
Only smelled this impurity when i did a bromohydrin formation in aqueous DMSO with NBS on styrene, phew, really bad.
But pure it is very sweet smelling.
Second to this I would vote for Hexane, third DCM or TCM.

Ethyl acetate is one of the worst smelling things on the list, Pyridine is not that bad compared to EtOAc´s, bad, glue-like stench.
I dont like Et2O too. Very harsh.

aldofad - 24-3-2015 at 06:29

You are all wrong here

,
seriously, D-Limonene is absolutely the best smell ever. Used to solve HIPS filaments in 3D printing.

woelen - 24-3-2015 at 07:30

D-limonene indeed has a good smell, it is like oranges.
When left in contact with air, however, it becomes thick, yellow and rancid, I think it is oxidized and forms polymeric species.

karlos³ - 24-3-2015 at 07:32

If Limonene was on the list, i would have chosen this too!
I like the smell of all those terpenes, except citral which is a bit too lemonlike for me, but citronellal and citronellol are along with limonene among my favourite smelling chemicals

I consider it more as a reagent than solvent, but ive read of its usage in some plant (bark) extractions.

Molecular Manipulations - 24-3-2015 at 07:46

Quote: Originally posted by woelen

When left in contact with air, however, it becomes thick, yellow and rancid, I think it is oxidized and forms polymeric species.

No it doesn't form any polymers,
It oxidizes easily in moist air to produce carveol, carvone, and limonene oxide acc. Wikipedia.
Limonene at elevated temperatures cracks to form isoprene.

zed - 6-4-2015 at 17:43

Awww. Gee Whiz, fellas. It is obvious Toluene must be the best smelling. Hereabouts, ya gotta sign for it to buy it. They keep it locked up in the back room, on account of it being so popular. Folks pour it right out on rags, and hold the rags over their faces, in order to be able to smell-ify it better.

smaerd - 6-4-2015 at 17:46

I'm a tetrahydrofuran man through and through! edit - ahhh fresh from the still through the gored septa blasting into your face. Nothing quite like that.

Where's my THF freaks at?

[Edited on 7-4-2015 by smaerd]

szuko03 - 11-4-2015 at 13:51

You people who said Xylene have got to be kidding, it just smells toxic. And I didnt think to put water... am I missing something does the whole world except me smell it?

[Edited on 11-4-2015 by szuko03]

Random - 15-4-2015 at 12:12

Xylene smells like shit its too heavy.

I bet u guys are masochists

DraconicAcid - 15-4-2015 at 12:15

Quote: Originally posted by szuko03

And I didnt think to put water... am I missing something does the whole world except me smell it?

No, it's just better to smell nothing at all than to smell pyridine, etc.

elementcollector1 - 15-4-2015 at 12:48

Pure bromine isn't on this list...

And that makes me a sad chemist.

Eddygp - 15-4-2015 at 13:14

Quote: Originally posted by elementcollector1

Pure bromine isn't on this list...

And that makes me a sad chemist.

You use bromine as a solvent... ?

Schleimsäure - 30-4-2015 at 11:45

Benzene definitely, has something "sci-fi/mysterious" Toluene is missing, can't describe. Too bad one should not sniff it for too long (not for a "kick", just the smell). The mother of aromatics has the smell it deserves

[Edited on 30-4-2015 by Schleimsäure]

Loptr - 30-4-2015 at 11:51

Quote: Originally posted by szuko03

You people who said Xylene have got to be kidding, it just smells toxic. And I didnt think to put water... am I missing something does the whole world except me smell it?

[Edited on 11-4-2015 by szuko03]

Water does have a smell to me, but I think it could be more than just sensory, but also associative as well.

The Volatile Chemist - 30-4-2015 at 11:56

And congratulations... SM has decayed into the equivalent of Chemical Forums
I've only smelled water and ethanol, acetone and isopropanol. I voted water...

Amos - 30-4-2015 at 18:56

Quote: Originally posted by The Volatile Chemist

And congratulations... SM has decayed into the equivalent of Chemical Forums
I've only smelled water and ethanol, acetone and isopropanol. I voted water...

...What do you mean we've decayed?