numos
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Malathion isolation
I found some old bottles of insecticide in my garage that had 50% malathion.
Any useful or interesting I could do with it? Isolate it would be a start...
It is a liquid solution.
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thesmug
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Distillation or solvent extraction (though I doubt solv. ext. would be very easy). Be careful since it's a skin sensitizer.
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numos
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Any idea what temp. I should distill at? Also would the receiving
flask have the Malathion, or the boiling flask?
Sorry for my lack of knowledge in organics, I have not taken an organic chem class yet, and I hate to see good chemical go unused...
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DraconicAcid
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Quote: Originally posted by numos  | Any idea what temp. I should distill at? Also would the receiving
flask have the Malathion, or the boiling flask?
Sorry for my lack of knowledge in organics, I have not taken an organic chem class yet, and I hate to see good chemical go unused...
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malathion
It has a boiling point of 157 oC at very low pressure- you wouldn't be distilling it so much as boiling off the solvent.
The structure doesn't strike me as something one can do much interesting with.
Please remember: "Filtrate" is not a verb.
Write up your lab reports the way your instructor wants them, not the way your ex-instructor wants them.
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numos
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So I could boil off the solvent until the temperature rises, then switch out a fresh receiving flask and collect the Malathion?
I'm adding a picture of the bottle, maybe it will spark enlightenment.
 
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DraconicAcid
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| Quote: Originally posted by numos | So I could boil off the solvent until the temperature rises, then switch out a fresh receiving flask and collect the Malathion?
I'm adding a picture of the bottle, maybe it will spark enlightenment.
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If it boils at 157oC at 0.7 mmHg, it's likely not going to boil at ordinary pressure until it's hot enough to decompose.
Please remember: "Filtrate" is not a verb.
Write up your lab reports the way your instructor wants them, not the way your ex-instructor wants them.
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numos
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Oh I see what you mean. Well I'm going to keep looking for this, but it seems like a lot of effort to get something useless - a destructive chemical
even. Thanks for the help though!
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thesmug
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| Quote: Originally posted by numos | | Oh I see what you mean. Well I'm going to keep looking for this, but it seems like a lot of effort to get something useless - a destructive chemical
even. Thanks for the help though! |
Well don't give up! You can do a vacuum filtration very easily.
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lavenatti
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"Heating malathion may also lead to the formation of isomalathion, which is a potent AChE inhibitor"
from here:
http://npic.orst.edu/factsheets/malatech.html
Maybe a little more research is required before tossing it on the burner.
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thesmug
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Yikes! OP, completely ignore my suggestion of distillation. Unless you like the effects of sarin...
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numos
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Sarin? How could that happen? I thought Sarin had a Fluorine atom. Unless the other 50% of inactive ingredients has a Fluorine donor. It is an
organophosphate so similar effects to Sarin can be expected...? 
Apparently Sarin breaks down into isopropyl methylphosphonic acid (IMPA) in the presence of NaOH, can I expect something similar if I added NaOH to
Malathion?
Edit: This is all theoretical btw, I have no intention of trying this as this is a very old bottle, at the time you could probably buy Arsenic based
pesticides OTC, so who knows what kind of other crap is in the remaining 50%.
[Edited on 3-14-2014 by numos]
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thesmug
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| Quote: Originally posted by numos |
Sarin? How could that happen? I thought Sarin had a Fluorine atom. Unless the other 50% of inactive ingredients has a Fluorine donor. It is an
organophosphate so similar effects to Sarin can be expected...?
Apparently Sarin breaks down into isopropyl methylphosphonic acid (IMPA) in the presence of NaOH, can I expect something similar if I added NaOH to
Malathion?
Edit: This is all theoretical btw, I have no intention of trying this as this is a very old bottle, at the time you could probably buy Arsenic based
pesticides OTC, so who knows what kind of other crap is in the remaining 50%.
[Edited on 3-14-2014 by numos] |
It was a bit vague, sorry about that. Sarin is an AChE inhibitor, like isomalathion. It simply has the same effects, it is in no way related to sarin
[edit]: After figuring all of the below out, I guess it is actually very related to sarin.. As for the NaOH question, it looks like something similar
would happen. Judging by the reaction product from sarin (image 1), which is notably similar to the structure of malathion (image 2), the product of
the malathion reaction would (theoretically) look like image 3.
  
But that's purely theoretical. I have no idea what would actually happen. Stay safe
[Edited on 3/15/14 by thesmug]
[Edited on 3/15/14 by thesmug]
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