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Author: Subject: Acetone from Nail Polish Remover
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[*] posted on 18-11-2007 at 01:20


You could also oxidize the isopropyl alcohol using sodium hypochlorite (Bleach) and acetic acid, although this would certainly introduce a great deal of water. This whole thing seems crazy! I can’t imagine going through so much work to get acetone!

Now onto health hazards with using acetone. Acetone is able to penetrate into you blood stream quite easily. Subsequently it is capable of transmitting things that it has dissolved into your body just by touching it. In fact, my father worked on a project in which he studied using acetone solutions as potential spray-on inoculations. So be careful when cleaning glassware, especially when working with potential carcinogens.

Also, acetone is extremely bad for the environment. So I hope that everyone is disposing of their gallons of acetone properly!
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[*] posted on 18-11-2007 at 15:15


......Also, acetone is extremely bad for the environment. ............

Acetone is produced by the human body is not very toxic
and is environmentally biodegradable.

This of course doesn;t mean it should be flushed down the toilet or indiscriminately
inhaled.

[Edited on by bio2]
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[*] posted on 18-11-2007 at 16:23


Quote:
Also, acetone is extremely bad for the environment.


Do you have a source for this?

According to this article, acetone seems pretty benign. For the quantities of acetone used in experimentation I think it would be reasonable to assume that biodegridation would quickly remove the acetone from the soil (outlined in the above article). Additionally this article (and many others) show acetone to be fairly benign to organisms; many of which simply metabolize acetone to produce carbon dioxide.
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[*] posted on 20-11-2007 at 06:54


Hey all. I can't believe nobody has mentioned the bisulfite adduct for purification of acetone (a ketone). It's in the library (here), check Vogel's 3rd. I imagine that would render your nail polish remover into ultra pure acetone.

I always distill my hardware solvents. They invariably contain particles and coloured impurities that are not noticeable until it's distilled. The residues left after simple distillation range among cloudy, dusty, gold to green to yellow.

As an aside, I once heated a small amount of acetone in a test tube without a boiling stone and the whole lot vapourized and shot straight to the ceiling. Funny thing was, it never hit the ceiling, it remained a gas. I had to change my pants after that. Ah, sweet ignorance!




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[*] posted on 20-11-2007 at 07:34


Bisufite is an expensive way to purify a solvent, as it uses up the bisufite and base/acid used to destroy the addition compound. The complex with sodium iodide was used to purify acetone back when it was a product of the destructive distillation of wood, methanol was the main contaminate.

These days fractional distillation, drying, and fractionating again will do a good job of cleaning acetone. Different methods of production, different contaminates.
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[*] posted on 20-11-2007 at 09:49


@ not important: I agree, the expense and trouble may be prohibitive for large amounts. But since others are suggesting actually synthesizing acetone, this isn't too far to go. Plus, it's fun.:cool:



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[*] posted on 22-1-2013 at 10:15


I have up&up acetone with impurity of an organic compound (don't have it in front of me, something like dihydroxyquinone)? Probably that's not it, but according to Wiki when I looked it up, it remains solid well past the boiling point of acetone. There is no methylacetate or water in this product, according to the label on the back. Any simple purification routes? I can distill if necessary, but I wanted to know if there's anything simpler.

Does acetone catch fire when heated in a distillation apparatus?




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[*] posted on 24-1-2013 at 09:24


Quote: Originally posted by elementcollector1  

Does acetone catch fire when heated in a distillation apparatus?


Not if you heat it to boiling point and gently distill. Totally safe. Just make sure your condenser condenses all vapours so your work space doesn't get to contain a lot of acetone vapours. The BP of acetone is so low you can use a steam bath as heat source, even safer!




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[*] posted on 25-1-2013 at 17:23


The steam bath idea worked beautifully. Incidentally, the actual impurity was denatonium benzoate. My boiling, crude acetone turned yellow-orange on heating - is this the presence of this impurity? The distillate itself was very clear, almost identical to water in color and viscosity.

Definitely doing this again, soon I'll have liters of acetone on the cheap... >:D




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[*] posted on 26-1-2013 at 00:30


That I know.
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blogfast25
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[*] posted on 26-1-2013 at 06:50


Quote: Originally posted by elementcollector1  
The steam bath idea worked beautifully. Incidentally, the actual impurity was denatonium benzoate. My boiling, crude acetone turned yellow-orange on heating - is this the presence of this impurity? The distillate itself was very clear, almost identical to water in color and viscosity.

Definitely doing this again, soon I'll have liters of acetone on the cheap... >:D


By distilling you concentrate whatever non-volatile crap in the re-boiler flask, which thus goes progressively more coloured as you distill off the acetone. In commercial nail polish remover there's a whole range of stuff, besides DnaB, also a bit of oil, usually a dye, some water etc...

But a cheap source of acetone nail polish remover I wouldn't call! Techical acetone is cheap as chips... But it's a nice exercise in simple distillation alright!

[Edited on 26-1-2013 by blogfast25]

[Edited on 26-1-2013 by blogfast25]




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