monolithic
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How to dissolve wood?
Long story short, I'm doing essential oil extraction of wood. There's a piece of wood stuck in my round bottom flask - I guess it swelled up during
the steam distillation process. It almost fits through the neck of the flask but gets stuck, and I can't break it up or pull it out. I'm currently
letting it soak in hot (50 C) saturated NaOH with stirring. It doesn't seem to be doing much. Any other ideas?
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SWIM
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I'd try 10% bleach for a few days of soaking.
You could put the dry flask in an oven at 200 to 250C and try to carbonize it..
Concentrated H2SO4 might break it down.
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monolithic
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Good ideas, thanks for the quick response. I think I'll try H2SO4 first, since I have some drain cleaner sitting around.
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WGTR
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I’d suggest putting it in an oven and letting it dry out. If it swells in water, then without water it shrinks again...?
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DavidJR
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Burn it?
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fusso
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i dont think heating that hot is better than H2SO4. a bunch of organics like tar will stick to the flask. good luck in removing that unless you have
piranha soln.
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DraconicAcid
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Copper(II) hydroxide dissolve in concentrated ammonia will dissolve cellulose- it might help break up the wood.
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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clearly_not_atara
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Ding ding ding! This is the original rayon process. It isn't used anymore because avoiding copper contamination of effluent is hard --
Cu(NH3)22+ is very stable and its salts are highly soluble.
There are also ionic liquids that can be used for dissolving cellulose. The anion is usually acetate, since it is a good H-bond acceptor. Cations are
often imidazolium, though morpholinium, amidinium and choline have been used. Choline acetate in particular is accessible to the amateur, as is the
DES choline chloride-urea. See:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/chem.2011032...
[Edited on 04-20-1969 by clearly_not_atara]
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monolithic
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Thank you everyone for the interesting ideas. Some hot H2SO4 drain cleaner did the trick. 
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Mabus
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Glad to hear. Sulfuric acid works best I see.
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Magpie
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Wood is disintegrated in pulp mills using aqueous NaOH/Na2S (Kraft process) at about 180°C for 3 hrs under pressure. This dissolves the lignin that
binds the cellulose fibers together.
I would try heating it in aqueous NaOH (~25%) as hot as possible for a few hours.
The single most important condition for a successful synthesis is good mixing - Nicodem
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