Sciencemadness Discussion Board

bis-(2,4,5 trichlorophenyl-6-carbopentoxyphenyl)oxalate

ryan0713 - 18-9-2011 at 17:52

Hello guys, (my greeting BTW)

I have just ordered 15 large 6" glow sticks. I am planning to extract the Phenyl oxalate from them. I just don't know if my hypothesis is correct. My plan is (very simplified version) is to take out the fluorescent part of the glow stick, which consists of sodium acetate, fluorescent dyes, and a phenyl oxalate, and an organic solvent, such as ethyl acetate. next I will dry the liquid and wash the soluble solids out with lots of water. since phenyl oxalates are non-soluble in water, the phenyl oxalate ( which is probably cyalume, will stay behind. So, if you want to see this it will hopefully be up soon on my youtube account, linked here ***** http://www.youtube.com/user/TheRyanatkinson?feature=mhee

Dr.Bob - 19-9-2011 at 10:20

Last I knew, the organic solvent was a phthalate, such as dibutyl phthalate, which is high boiling and very viscous, in order to slow the reaction down to 30 minutes or more. If you are looking for lower MW solvents, you would probably need to find very bright, short-lived light sticks for that. Also, the oxalate will be slowly destroyed by water, so you would need to dry it well once you extract it.

MrHomeScientist - 19-9-2011 at 10:41

Quote: Originally posted by Dr.Bob  
Last I knew, the organic solvent was a phthalate, such as dibutyl phthalate, which is high boiling and very viscous, in order to slow the reaction down to 30 minutes or more. If you are looking for lower MW solvents, you would probably need to find very bright, short-lived light sticks for that. Also, the oxalate will be slowly destroyed by water, so you would need to dry it well once you extract it.


I can confirm this - I work with big drums of the separate light stick activator and oxalate components, and both are very viscous like syrup. The MSDS for the oxalate (the colored component) lists dibutyl phthalate as 85%-95% composition. Granted, this is a little different than the stuff used in everyday glow sticks, but it does agree with Dr. Bob.