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Amos
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Poll: Which solvent smells the best?
A debate between a few members and I needs to be put to rest. Which of these solvents smells the best, in your opinion? If you're not familiar with
all of them, just pick from the ones you have smelled.
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alexleyenda
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"Acetone" and "Acetic acid", why are these even in the poll x) There are 6 out of 23 I never smelled but so far Ethyl acetate is not bad.
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gdflp
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Quote: Originally posted by alexleyenda  | | "Acetone" and "Acetic acid", why are these even in the poll x) There are 6 out of 23 I never smelled but so far Ethyl acetate is not bad.
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Hahaha, I'm the opposite of you I guess. I don't mind acetone, and acetic acid doesn't smell bad, it just has a harsh odor. Ethyl acetate is
probably one of my least favorite, I really dislike it. I personally chose carbon tetrachloride, I've only gotten a small whiff when transferring
from one bottle to another, and it's not bad, a little sweeter than chloroform.
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diddi
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AMOS, I THINK YOU ARE BEING VERY IRRESPONSIBLE TO GET SM MEMBERS TO SNIFF SOLVENTS. DONT YOU KNOW THAT THEY ARE CARCINOGENS AND POISONOUS. MY
TEACHERS HAVE ALWAYS TOLD ME NEVER TO SNIFF ANY CHEMICALS BECAUSE YOU DONT KNOW IF THEY ARE HARMFUL. I HAVE A GOOD MIND TO REPORT YOU TO BERT
Beginning construction of periodic table display
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gdflp
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I hope you're trolling diddi. As you should know from working with solvents, it's nearly impossible not to get a whiff now and then.
And I knew in my gut that someone was going to say that I was going to get cancer from getting a whiff of CCl4, and you have hit that
nerve.(Though I personally thought it would be Cou, no offense)
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Etaoin Shrdlu
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I hope that second to last post is some kind of meme.
I'm going to go with isopropanol because it conjures memories.
[Edited on 3-11-2015 by Etaoin Shrdlu]
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diddi
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its an in joke  no trolling from me...
Beginning construction of periodic table display
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BromicAcid
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There was a large acetic acid spill at my work one time. I helped to clean it up, the person I was working with kept complaining that the smell was
sickening, but the more I cleaned the more I craved a salad. Different folks, different effects. I like acetic acid, but it's got nothing on ether.
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chem_haruka
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Pyridine,smells 'best'
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alexleyenda
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ahahahahahah
So many people voted for ether. I expected that, ether is not too bad, but I find it quite "aggressive". Not harsh, just kind of too intense. Anyway
it looks like there are many differend kind of people here x) It seems benzene is great but it is one of the 6 I never smelled.
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Amos
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See, I knew it'd be surprising. From talking with other members I've gathered that people's senses of smell really vary widely; I think a lot of it
has to do with nostalgia or experience.
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battoussai114
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Yeaahhh, I'm going with water.
BTW, how different are n-Propanol and Isopropanol smells?
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Amos
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Ah, that's no fun. I haven't actually smelled the straight-chain isomer, but I believe it is more mild and ethanol-like.
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Bert
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| Quote: Originally posted by diddi | | AMOS, I THINK YOU ARE BEING VERY IRRESPONSIBLE TO GET SM MEMBERS TO SNIFF SOLVENTS. DONT YOU KNOW THAT THEY ARE CARCINOGENS AND POISONOUS. MY
TEACHERS HAVE ALWAYS TOLD ME NEVER TO SNIFF ANY CHEMICALS BECAUSE YOU DONT KNOW IF THEY ARE HARMFUL. I HAVE A GOOD MIND TO REPORT YOU TO BERT
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Don't bother, he's too wasted from all the test-and-compare this thread led to-
I kind of like amyl acetate, personally... Good associations from childhood. Hoppes #9!
http://www.copquest.com/knowledgebase/MSDS_Hoppes_No_9_Solve...
[Edited on 12-3-2015 by Bert]
Rapopart’s Rules for critical commentary:
1. Attempt to re-express your target’s position so clearly, vividly and fairly that your target says: “Thanks, I wish I’d thought of putting it
that way.”
2. List any points of agreement (especially if they are not matters of general or widespread agreement).
3. Mention anything you have learned from your target.
4. Only then are you permitted to say so much as a word of rebuttal or criticism.
Anatol Rapoport was a Russian-born American mathematical psychologist (1911-2007).
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diddi
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@gdflp - you don't know how funny your reply is 
joke relates to a Skype discussion
Beginning construction of periodic table display
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Volanschemia
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2-Propanol for me.
I haven't smelled very many solvents though I must say.
If Diethyl Phthalate were on the list I would have picked that. 
I hope you are joking  !
[Edited on 12-3-2015 by TheAustralianScientist]
"The chemists are a strange class of mortals, impelled by an almost insane impulse to seek their pleasures amid smoke and
vapor, soot and flame, poisons and poverty; yet among all these evils I seem to live so sweetly that may I die if I were to change places with the
Persian king" - Johann Joachim Becher, 1635 to 1682.
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woelen
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I have smelled all of them, and only pyridine is offensive for me.
I voted for chloroform (sweetish smell, but quite "heavy"), but in reality nearly all solvents are quite neutral to me. There are only very few pure
chemicals which I find smelling bad, but there also are very few chemicals which I find smelling really good. Most of them I do not dislike, nor
particularly like.
Of the list, given above, pyridine is offensive to me and n-propanol is a tad on the bad side. Its smell is quite different from the smell of
iso-propanol. It is somewhere between rancid butter and iso-propanol.
Benzene and toluene have nearly identical smells to me.
There is one other solvent, not mentioned above, which smells bad to me and that is 1-hexene. This has a strong smell which reminds me of the smell of
a dirty oil-refinery factory.
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Pasrules
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Mmm acetone, chemist's water.
However today in the lab we had 50 students washing a tris(en)cobalt chloride complex with diethylether, i managed to finish up before a cloud started
to form.
Atropine, Bicarb, Calcium.
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hyfalcon
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| Quote: Originally posted by Bert | | Quote: Originally posted by diddi | | AMOS, I THINK YOU ARE BEING VERY IRRESPONSIBLE TO GET SM MEMBERS TO SNIFF SOLVENTS. DONT YOU KNOW THAT THEY ARE CARCINOGENS AND POISONOUS. MY
TEACHERS HAVE ALWAYS TOLD ME NEVER TO SNIFF ANY CHEMICALS BECAUSE YOU DONT KNOW IF THEY ARE HARMFUL. I HAVE A GOOD MIND TO REPORT YOU TO BERT
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Don't bother, he's too wasted from all the test-and-compare this thread led to-
I kind of like amyl acetate, personally... Good associations from childhood. Hoppes #9!
http://www.copquest.com/knowledgebase/MSDS_Hoppes_No_9_Solve...
[Edited on 12-3-2015 by Bert] |
Always wondered why I liked the smell of that one myself.
This and WD-40.
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deltaH
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I personally find the smell of EtOAc repulsive, but I've heard some people find it pleasant. Out of the list, THF is my favourite.
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Atrum
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| Quote: Originally posted by deltaH | | I personally find the smell of EtOAc repulsive, but I've heard some people find it pleasant. Out of the list, THF is my favourite.
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I don't mind acetic acid personally, but I know a guy who will vomit if he gets a strong whiff of it. He really hated it when I was making sodiun
acetate by boiling down the solution in our appartment haha.
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Metacelsus
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Water smells best.
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Loptr
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I put water as well.
I would rather not be smelling something in my flask... I don't know what it will do to me in the long run.
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Eddygp
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Ethyl acetate, diethyl ether, chloroform are all quite good. Chloroform is the best.
WHO ON EARTH VOTED FOR TOLUENE? Come on, that smells horrible!
there may be bugs in gfind
[ˌɛdidʒiˈpiː] IPA pronunciation for my Username |
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Etaoin Shrdlu
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I'm amused by how chloroform skyrocketed just now.
Come on, toluene isn't bad. Xylene gives me a bitch of a headache though. I tried to carry an open 5-gallon bucket of it without a respirator once -
this was a wretched mistake to say the least.
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