Sciencemadness Discussion Board

White vinegar to acetic acid

Random - 7-5-2010 at 01:09

I have white vinegar 9% acetic acid. I read somewhere on the internet that I can purify it using silica gel to extract water from the solution. Is this possible to gain more pure acetic acid?

not_important - 7-5-2010 at 01:24

As is often said, use the search function as there are a number of threads on the production of pure acetic acid, and your question should have been asked there. Try searching for 'vinegar'





Random - 7-5-2010 at 01:38

I can't find anything about purifying acetic acid with silica gel using the search function..

not_important - 7-5-2010 at 02:04

I guess you have problems reading, then. Go back and reread my earlier comment.

Runningbear - 10-5-2010 at 16:26

Just do a search for acetic acid or glacial acetic acid there are two very comprehensive threads on it.

Hamilton - 10-5-2010 at 19:22

make zinc acetate anhydrous and heat it until it decompose, hopefully acetic acid will evaporate and can be condensed. Then use the remaining zinc oxide to make more zinc acetate from vinegar, dry and repeate.

don't know if it work but we should try. maybe it decompose to acetone like calcium acetate ( wiki )

[Edited on 11-5-2010 by Hamilton]

Random - 11-5-2010 at 06:08

Quote: Originally posted by Hamilton  
make zinc acetate anhydrous and heat it until it decompose, hopefully acetic acid will evaporate and can be condensed. Then use the remaining zinc oxide to make more zinc acetate from vinegar, dry and repeate.

don't know if it work but we should try. maybe it decompose to acetone like calcium acetate ( wiki )

[Edited on 11-5-2010 by Hamilton]


I would try it, but one problem is that it could explode if acetone was formed. (Or even acetic acid could maybe burn).

JohnWW - 11-5-2010 at 07:43

Distillation is usually used industrially to concentrate and purify CH3COOH, after initial production as vinegar by oxidative fermentation. Water and CH3COOH do not appear to form any maximum or minimum boiling point azeotrope, although formic and propionic acids do form azeotropes with water.

[Edited on 12-5-10 by JohnWW]

psychokinetic - 11-5-2010 at 17:02

Quote: Originally posted by Hamilton  
but one problem is that it could explode


And you write it down in your lab notebook (after cleaning up), and note how interesting and fun it was. Then, you try to work out how you could do to avoid such a thing happening again.

I don't know about anyone else, but when there's a chance that what I'm using could remove my face, I find it extra exciting. That's partly what got me into chemistry in the first place.

[Edited on 12-5-2010 by psychokinetic]

entropy51 - 12-5-2010 at 10:10

Quote: Originally posted by JohnWW  
Distillation is usually used industrially to concentrate and purify CH3COOH, after initial production as vinegar by oxidative fermentation. Water and CH3COOH do not appear to form any maximum or minimum boiling point azeotrope, although formic and propionic acids do form azeotropes with water.

[Edited on 12-5-10 by JohnWW]
Separation of highly concentrated AcOH from vinegar is not possible without industrial grade distillation equipment. The separation per stage is just too small. I've managed to concentrate vinegar to > 50% AcOH, but it's not worth the trouble.

rrkss - 12-5-2010 at 10:41

I've done it as well and it is way too much trouble to seperate the AcOH from vinegar with distillation. Best is to nuetralize the vinegar with NaOH of NaHCO3 and boil off the water. Then use H2SO4 to convert the NaAcOH into AcOH. Plenty of threads describing that method.