AlbinoMoose308
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barrels of solvent, not many uses... any ideas?
So I happen to have access to +40 gallons of 2 different organic solvents and was wondering if there's anything interesting/useful I can do with them.
The solvents are 1-Butoxy-2-Propanol and 2-Butoxyethanol. They work wonders for degreasing but surely those butyl groups are just begging to do
something fun! 
Acquiring a lab is difficult when you're dead-set on not spending a penny
Chlorine trifluoride should be officially designated "liquid fire"
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Cou
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Make acetate esters by fischer esterification. see if they have an interesting smell.
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draculic acid69
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Can they be hydrolyzed like esters into there respective alcohols?
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njl
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Lucky! like drac suggested you could hydrolyze the ether to ethylene glycol and butanol (both useful in large quantities), and the ester to the acid
and ether. I think you can selectively hydrolyze the ester with a strong base and then the ether with an acid after workup.
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Sulaiman
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I'd consider selling them in 1 litre bottles via eBay then use the cash to buy more interesting stuff
CAUTION : Hobby Chemist, not Professional or even Amateur
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draculic acid69
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I'd agree selling some or trading some is definitely a good idea. Also hydrolyzing some into other products to play with opens up possibilities as
well.
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DraconicAcid
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I seem to recall that hydrolysis of an ether is pretty difficult. You may have better luck cleaving them into alkyl halides.
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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Cou
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Ethers can be hydrolyzed by HBr into alkyl halides. the products will be 1-bromobutane and 1,2-dibromoethane
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draculic acid69
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Am I right in guessing that hydrochloric acid might be too weak to make the chlorides
Anyway the alkyl halides sound more interesting and they further open up possibilities.
I think straight butanol or secbutanol can be used as a petrol substitute without modification of the car.
[Edited on 4-6-2020 by draculic acid69]
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Tsjerk
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Making the chlorides will just be very slow.
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draculic acid69
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Could it be helped along with zncl2 or something?
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