Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Toluene and n-butyl acetate azeotrope?

bluetrain - 14-9-2010 at 07:35

The only toluene I can find in decent quantities is in a paint thinner which also contains ethanol and n-butyl acetate. After water washes to remove the ethanol the mixture should contain approximately 80% toluene. I can't find any data on whether toluene and butyl acetate forms an azeotrope, does anyone know? Their boiling points are only 15C apart but I'm hoping a small fractionating column and only collecting a small portion of the toluene fraction will suffice.

If nothing goes right; some of the toluene is to be nitrated to mono-nitrotoluenes in DCM. Would butyl acetate make any difference in this reaction?

kmno4 - 14-9-2010 at 21:52

There is something like this: Advances in chemistry no.6 -AZEOTROPIC DATA.
According to it, there is no azeotrope between toluene and n-BuAc.

bluetrain - 15-9-2010 at 00:49

Wonderful, thank you very much :)