Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Pentaerythritol from paint

Zinc - 12-1-2007 at 03:57

I have heared that pentaerithrytol can be extracted from some types of paint.
Is that true?
If yes from what type of paint can it be extracted?



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Edited to make pentaerythritol spelled correctly in the title.

[Edited on 12-1-2007 by The_Davster]

DrP - 12-1-2007 at 08:23

It is definately in most types of intumescent paint as a charing agent during combustion. How to extract it I would not know.

nitro-genes - 12-1-2007 at 08:33

I'm quite sure pentaerythritol is added as an additive in very small percentages, probably for esterification to function as a binder material for the pigment. I reckon it would be 2% at most, with a much larger amount of pigments, oil, water, etc...

Almost impossible to seperate, very costly, and extremely messy probably...

DrP - 12-1-2007 at 09:15

It's about 10 to 15 % in the intumescent paints. Still no idea how to get it out though.

Biginelli - 12-1-2007 at 11:33

Chromatography's the only effective way I guess. But costly.

The_Davster - 12-1-2007 at 14:02

Ideally a solvent immiscible with paint but which pentaerythritol is soluble in could be mixed in and then withdrawn. PE solubility charts are easy to find....but what else is in paint?

Zinc - 12-1-2007 at 16:02

Quote:
Originally posted by DrP
It's about 10 to 15 % in the intumescent paints.


What are intumescent paints?

DrP - 15-1-2007 at 01:25

Quote:
Quote:


What are intumescent paints?


Paint systems which act as fire retardants by swelling up during heat/fire to form a protective barrier from the flame/heat and to offer insulation to the substrate. The Pentaerythritol acts as a charing/crosslinkinh agent for the char formation.

[Edited on 15-1-2007 by DrP]

quicksilver - 15-1-2007 at 07:32

This is such an inexpensive tech-grade industrial material it seems unnesessarlly troublesome to extract it. One can obtain it by the pound or Kg by direct purchase. Most any manufacturing facility that produces colored plastics, painting mfg, etc, etc - have enormous amounts of this in a very rough grade. I would invite a U2U but you can find these places yourself (like I did) with a very simple search and even narrow it down to your area if you live near a large industrial area. The cheapest I have seen it was $3 a pound for very course, tech-grade material with a bit of debris in it (93% pure). But the extraction from paint seems just a bit too troublesome. Extraction of pentaerythritol from solid materials wherein it's used much more would be possible - in the production of alkyd resins, rosin esters, dry oil, coating, ... even lubricants. Direct purchase is common however. Why use an extraction unless the extraction itself is of interest? Paint would be a very low yield. But for direct purchase you better move fast as it's starting to be mentioned in the TSCA bullletins (toxic substances control act proposals) - http://www.epa.gov/fedrgstr/EPA-TOX/2002/December/Day-16/t31... - It's not toxic to any great extent as far as I'm awair but in industial usage there are other issues wherein the USEPA is envolved.
Extraction of materials is best when you simply can't obtain that material directly, IMO. If you buy things today you will still be able to.

Zinc - 20-1-2007 at 09:46

Quote:
Originally posted by The_Davster
Ideally a solvent immiscible with paint but which pentaerythritol is soluble in could be mixed in and then withdrawn.


Perhaps water could be used. PE is soluble in it and most other things in paint are as far as I know not. Even if there are some other things that are soluble in water they could be removed from PE by recristalization.

Sauron - 20-1-2007 at 10:02

But what is the point? What's wrong with the acetaldehyde + formaldehyde good old PE prep as elucidated in Chem. of Powder and Explosives, Org.Syn. etc etc.?? Seems a lot less work than the muss and fuss of extraction from paint. Ugh.

DeAdFX - 20-1-2007 at 20:06

I would assume acetaladehyde is a little difficult to get otc. However I have seen acetaldehyde in form of metaaldehyde at a fertilizer store(~10% pure 90% inert shit). Formaldehyde is pretty easy to get otc(trioxane fuel tablets).

Anywho if the concentration of said chemical is not above 50% then it isn't really worth trying to purify[unless of course you are into manufacturing drugs and in which case anything will yeild a nice profit]. OR... If you have difficulty finding a seller of said chemical. Look for a different souce. This paint should be your last option.

209 - 23-7-2007 at 20:42

Yeah, were do you guys get your pentaerythritol? I have never seen it ANYWERE. Not from chem suppliers, paint stores or anything. Were can I find it?? I would like to make some PETN but cannot find this damn chemical!