Sciencemadness Discussion Board

barrels of solvent, not many uses... any ideas?

AlbinoMoose308 - 2-6-2020 at 22:30

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! :)

Cou - 2-6-2020 at 22:41

Make acetate esters by fischer esterification. see if they have an interesting smell.

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draculic acid69 - 3-6-2020 at 04:29

Can they be hydrolyzed like esters into there respective alcohols?

njl - 3-6-2020 at 04:45

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.

Sulaiman - 3-6-2020 at 06:09

I'd consider selling them in 1 litre bottles via eBay then use the cash to buy more interesting stuff :)

draculic acid69 - 3-6-2020 at 18:20

Quote: Originally posted by Sulaiman  
I'd consider selling them in 1 litre bottles via eBay then use the cash to buy more interesting stuff :)


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.

DraconicAcid - 3-6-2020 at 18:27

Quote: Originally posted by draculic acid69  
Can they be hydrolyzed like esters into there respective alcohols?


I seem to recall that hydrolysis of an ether is pretty difficult. You may have better luck cleaving them into alkyl halides.

Cou - 3-6-2020 at 20:27

Ethers can be hydrolyzed by HBr into alkyl halides. the products will be 1-bromobutane and 1,2-dibromoethane

draculic acid69 - 4-6-2020 at 01:25

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]

Tsjerk - 4-6-2020 at 01:27

Making the chlorides will just be very slow.

draculic acid69 - 4-6-2020 at 01:30

Could it be helped along with zncl2 or something?