Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Over-the-counter Tetrahydrofuran

ParadoxChem126 - 4-5-2013 at 21:39

I found a product hidden in the depths of my garage called "Christy's PVC Pipe Cement". Looking at the MSDS, it turns out that much of it is composed of tetrahydrofuran, about 38-50%. The stuff is also reasonably cheap. I think that you could fractionally distill it to obtain the pure THF. I really don't know if this would be pure enough to use in a Grignard reaction... maybe. You would probably have to take steps to dry it as well. Anyway, I still think it would be cheaper to get THF this way than by ordering it online.

The link to the product: http://www.homedepot.com/p/Christy-s-8-fl-oz-PVC-Pipe-Cement...



[Edited on 5-5-2013 by ParadoxChem126]

12AX7 - 4-5-2013 at 22:28

The primer may be promising as well; it doesn't have the sticky PVC resin:

http://www.homedepot.com/catalog/pdfImages/34/342c06be-e1cb-...

MEK, acetone, THF and cyclohexanone might be a challenge to separate; I'm guessing THF and acetone will come off close together, followed by MEK and hex? Sodium bisulfite might be useful to precipitate the remaining ketones, or other adducts or adsorbants (particular size molecular sieves?).

Tim

franklyn - 5-5-2013 at 05:55

http://hpd.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/household/brands?tbl=brands&a...
http://hpd.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/household/brands?tbl=chem&...

.

Magpie - 5-5-2013 at 10:22

try pvc and cpvc pipe dope primer:

http://www.sciencemadness.org/talk/viewthread.php?tid=3173#p...

[Edited on 5-5-2013 by Magpie]

DH2 - 13-5-2013 at 18:20

Tetrahydrofuran should be easy to find in pure form. I have seen it sold to repair rafts. It's also sold as "conformal coating remover":

http://www.techspray.com/download-tds-document.php?pId=99