Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Dichloromethane otc product

conducter - 31-12-2006 at 18:41

i found a product online that is used as a degreaser and is available at many auto stores.

its MSDS says it contains:

Carbon Dioxide 1-5%
Dichloromethane 40-70%
Ethyl benzene 1-5%
Toluene 15-40%
Xylene 15-40%


CO2 obviously the propellant. Ethyl benzene, toluene, xylene all boil way over the b.p. of DCM. So swim is wondering is this a good product that could be available to order? it is sold in a 12 pack case because swim thinks this brand only has the non-chlorinated brand at the local auto stores.

Also this would have the advantage of not having that nasty white shit in the paint strippers with DCM and methanol.

PainKilla - 1-1-2007 at 13:05

What is with the swimming? It's not even illegal to do so at this time of year.

I think YOU should do an MSDS search because much better products exist... and I don't even know why one would bother with such an impure source to begin with... 40%?

Spend an hour or two searching, there are products that are ~75% DCM, ~5% polymer, ~20% propellant... aka, utsfe and find it and stop using crappy sources.

And to answer your question... no, that's not a good product to order. Ever hear of cancer? Well, you will once you use your "Dichloromethane"...

BromicAcid - 1-1-2007 at 13:23

Come on PainKilla, don't go throwing around cancer as a deterrent, most of the things we work with are carcinogens, probable carcinogens, likely carcinogens, or future carcinogens so that shouldn't even be a deterrent we have to mention.

Conducter, there are better alternatives out there for methylene chloride but I don't know your exact situation and this product might be easier for you to get than alternatives and you mention avoiding the 'nasty white shit' is this from experience or from what you have read elsewhere, as PainKilla said this has been gone over with success by some of our members. Just looking at it I can see distillation might be a problem. Despite boiling point differences, toluene and xylene will come over with your methylene chloride, they have appreciable vapor pressures after all and it will be somewhat akin to steam distillation. So you will need a good fractioning column, that is provided that they do not form an azeotrope to begin with. It's hard to predict azeotropes so you might have to hit the literature, especially since the methylene chloride makes up less than half of your starting material.

There are references around that will give tables of azeotropes which may prove helpful. The separation likely won't be stellar the first time so multiple distillations may be in order. I don't see it as impossible or anything but you might wish to try your hardest to get only one can of this material to experiment on before making an investment that may prove fruitless.

Aqua_Fortis_100% - 4-7-2007 at 08:38

hmmm...

i'm searching for the best OTC solvent over the hardware stores and such..but i've never either found that have a decent description of the contents, or MSDS..NEVER!!!

So what i should keep in mind to identify such solvents without any fancy technicques or apparatus?(all of my are DIY glassware,etc)

the only i know is that the DCM doesn't take fire..so i have to look the label of the solvent and dont want to see the "flammable" sign. But as stated by conducter , some flammable additives can be come also. Furthermore, some chlorinated solvents are also non flammable, but AREN'T the desired DCM...
another propertie is that usually boils at ~ 40*C... but i dont want to bet in a solvent that i dont know entirely <u>before</u> buying them.. loss of money is a bad thing to a poor chemist as i.

so, are there a "magic" thing or indication that i can see in any solvent to give me a good chance to recognize the DCM???

[Edited on 4-7-2007 by Aqua_Fortis_100%]

oxybate - 4-7-2007 at 11:41

Damn, Conductor. After all these questions, one would have though you'd been able to synthesize that MDMA by now. Hahah!

Slimz - 1-10-2007 at 07:43

I am also in the search for DCM has anyone come up with a good (high percentage) product that's widely available yet? Is home syntheses an option?

i was thinking about just buying it here
http://www.sciencestuff.com/prod/Chem-Rgnts/C1680

MagicJigPipe - 14-10-2007 at 14:01

I found a product at AutoZone that contained only DCM and MeOH. I don't remember the exact name of it, however, and I can't go look right now for certain reasons :( I'm not sure of the percentages but those 2 substances' boiling points are far enough apart that they should be easy to seperate. Right?

smuv - 14-10-2007 at 15:49

They form an azeotrope consisting of 93% DCM which boils at 37.8 degrees. The DCM obtained is good enough for most purposes. If you want methanol free DCM run a forum search I think it has been discussed.

dcm

chemalien - 14-10-2007 at 18:47

4L - $80 - Anachemia Science. Canada

Eclectic - 15-10-2007 at 08:53

Small industrial chemical supply company: $85 for 5 gallons. :D

Fleaker - 15-10-2007 at 09:04

I'm also not adverse to selling any. It's ACS, water-free, DCM. $10/L. Pretty soon I should be making CHCl3 and CCl4 by photocatalytic chlorination of DCM, Just gotta get a mercury vapor light for UV.

Flamethrowa - 28-10-2007 at 16:34

Guys-

Circa 1850 Furniture Stripper, manufactured by Swing Paints Ltd. I got the MSDS from www.msdsonline.com, it says DCM 60-99%, Methanol 5-10%.

Simply add water and decant.

(Do note that I have not tried this yet; the can is still sitting on my shelf)

Antwain - 28-10-2007 at 16:47

I saw a product in a hardware store here the other day which was '990g/L methylene chloride'. That seems good for about, what, 70-80%. It was a paint stripper. AU20/L or $50/4L

mewk - 29-10-2007 at 14:31

DCM is also widely used as a glue-bonding agent/solvent for acrylics, Usually +90%....

Just something to think about....

chloric1 - 29-10-2007 at 18:04

Quote:
Originally posted by Fleaker
I'm also not adverse to selling any. It's ACS, water-free, DCM. $10/L. Pretty soon I should be making CHCl3 and CCl4 by photocatalytic chlorination of DCM, Just gotta get a mercury vapor light for UV.


I also considered this process as it occurs at 25C. In fact one of the old text said regular sunlight can be used. I would think the summer months would be best. I cannot remember if the mercury vapor lamp has the shortwave UV that is required. They should not be hard to obtain. Halogen lamps should work too. This morning at work I seen a box of HUGE mercury vapor lights and they where 250 watts:o I mean these where like 10 inches long and 4 inches wide! That certainly would meet your needs.

Fleaker - 29-10-2007 at 18:13

I'm interested, how much for 2 of them? Also, still have any of that benzene lying about? U2U if you want...