NEMO-Chemistry
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Ethanol windscreen cleaner cleanup
I was taking some pics and spilt the tube of the results so far!! So i am redoing it at the moment and should have pics for tomorrow!
Anyway Screen wash.
The local garage was selling off some old stock and dirty containers of 5 ltr windscreen concentrate, the type used for cleaning windows.
I have been buying it (old dirty containers for £1.75 and new ones for £3.50). I buy it because its ethanol based and is a cheap way for cleaning
glassware after things like plant extractions etc.
Its pretty harmless and seems to clean up glass pretty good, so i normally put the undiluted stuff in the flask and boil it up for a min or two then
cool and wash out.
After that its a normal wash eventually followed by Distilled water and then acetone for a final clean.
Seems a cheap way of cleaning up glass but has a couple of small problems.
All the container says is contains ethanol, but its a deep clear blue colour and smells like a cross between really sweet bubblegum and slightly
fruity, it also has a detergent in.
No idea how much Ethanol and slightly curious as to the amount. I decided to have a go at distillation and see if i could get rid of at least the
smell and colour!
I got nowhere with distillation! The colour lessened but the smell remained and so did most of the detergent by the look of it.
So i decided to see if i could maybe salt some of it out or maybe lessen the smell or colour.
So first attack was 50ml of the solution saturated with Ammonium Chloride, the tube got really cold as it dissolved and apart from a few small
bubbles it didnt really appear to do much.
The smell changed a little and a tiny wiff of ammonia was detected.
I wondered what would happen if i then saturated the same tube with Sodium Carbonate (washing soda type) in the same tube.
My reasoning was the Carbonate would increase the pH and maybe the Ammonia being given off might do something. I left over night and today i was
greeted with the following.
The solution has gone clear except for a blue precipitate on the bottom, the top might have a small layer or it might just be the glass and meniscus i
can see.
Might just about Ethanol layer but i doubt it. Anyway the colour has gone and all i can smell is a faint ammonia smell. It also seems the detergent
has gone.
The detergent might just have been turned into soap (the precipitate ) trapping the blue Dye as well.
I have another tube going so i can take a pic tomorrow. So far it does look like the blue colour is getting lighter and dropping out of solution.
I will also do it again tomorrow but this time weigh everything and try just Sodium Carbonate and one with just Ammonium chloride, i might also make
some Ammonium and try a tube with that.
Once its cleared and the smell has gone i might try and distil and see what i get.
Its nothing major but getting rid of the smell alone would make me happy  , you
never no i might get a useful solution out of it and its very cheap!! So even if i just get rid of the smell and colour i will use it that way for
glass cleaning.
The Msds says it contains Ethanol, Methanol and IPA! It dosnt mention the blue colour and says it smell of alcohol?? To me it smells like a nasty
bubblegum.
Anyway looks like i wont be able to clean it up much but getting rid of the detergent and colour and the smell is a good start!
[Edited on 6-9-2016 by NEMO-Chemistry]
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j_sum1
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I'd start by looking up the MSDS of the product. It might not tell you much but then again, it might.
I would also test the pH. Most cleaners are alkaline and I don't think car windscreen cleaner would be an exception.
The blue is probably just a dye. Apparently it is not possible to have a commercial liquid product without having some kind of coloration. :sigh:
It is not unusual for glass cleaners to contain some ammonia anyway. I'd test for that.
I would not expect a high concentration of ethanol. And it is likely to contain something else to make distillation problematic.
Ultimately, if you have a good effective glass cleaner that works for your purposes, I would probably just leave it at that. If the smell is
bothersome you might try changing your cleaning method. I would not be expecting to extract a useful reagent from a cleaner like this. But nothing
wrong with playing with a few ideas.
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NEMO-Chemistry
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Hi
According to the MSDS the product contains Methanol, Ethanol and IPA. The blue Dye forms a complex with i assume ammonia.
I will post pics up, i dont think i added enough Ammonium Chloride this time as a tiny amount of blue remains.
The pH was fairly neutral and is now around 9, the blue dye is in a bright blue layer and seems to be what precipitated out.
I had no solids left after dissolving them in the solution but it looks like Sodium Chloride has drop out of solution.
No idea how much of the alcohols are in this stuff, but it does look like my main gripe over the colour and smell can be resolved, the Dye forms a
complex with Ammonia and layers out mostly.
I was mainly just messing with the stuff to see if i could get an idea how much water was in it.
Its windscreen wash for cars, its pretty good as a first line cleaner for dirty glassware though and pretty cheap .
Not as effective as 'Bong' cleaner but local and OTC .
https://www.tetrosyl.com/images/stories/virtuemart/documents...
So looks like 5-10% Ethanol and low amounts of IPA and Methanol. Also says the pH should be 8 out the bottle.
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NEMO-Chemistry
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A couple of pics, it isnt clear but the one with a precipitate does actually have a very slight blue tinge still.
I need to read up and see what if anything Ammonia produces if reacted with different alcohols, so some more reading there.
I should stress that there isnt any real reason for doing this, except i was curious.
 
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