Cou - 12-4-2021 at 15:04
when you recycle solvents by simple distillation, do you pour the recycled solvent back into the original container with unused solvent, or do you set
aside a 2nd storage bottle for the recycled solvent until you use up the entire original bottle?
it's less convenient to have 2 sets of storage for every solvent. one bottle from the manufacturer and a 2nd bottle for recycled solvent.
[Edited on 4-12-2021 by Cou]
Dr.Bob - 12-4-2021 at 17:19
I often reuse colvent from simple things, sometimes I reuse the original container, but always mark it as "recovered" over the original label, this is
most common with 4L bottles. For most solvents, I will store them in a glass 1L bottle and label it as recylced or recovered or for acetone, often
"rinse" or :bath" acetone. 95-99% pure acetone is good enough to prerinse glassware, make dry ice bathes or soak small items in. Hexane and ethyl
acetate can often be recovered from columns, and DCM and ether can easily be recycled by rotovaping the solvent under very gentle vacuum and low temp,
which will mostly pull them away from other solvents.
Cou - 12-4-2021 at 17:59
at home I recycle ether by simple distillation with a graham condenser with ice cold water and receiving flask in ice cold water.
Fyndium - 12-4-2021 at 23:51
I dump them back in the original containers.
If I need extra high purity, I will get a new bottle or fractionally distill and perform extra steps for it. For general use, refining stuff takes way
too much time.
FrenchChemist - 14-4-2021 at 20:42
I do exactly the same as others, simple distillation is not a problem and allows you to get very good purity.
If I need a dry one, I add 3A molecular sieves or silica gel depending on the substance, of course.
In the case of solvents such as DCM, chloroform ether, dichloroethane, for obvious reasons, only glass bottles.
njl - 15-4-2021 at 04:17
I have a big jug of solvent and a smaller 1 liter bottle which is empty, I fill the 1 liter bottle for use and redistilled solvents go back into that.
So I have a clean enough liter on hand for use and more pure solvent left in the jug.