Sciencemadness Discussion Board

ethyl acetate - non-acetone nail polish remover

jamit - 30-8-2011 at 19:38

Has anyone done the distillation for non-acetone nail polish remover? I just did but the distillate comes over between 73-78C.

I was wondering what the content of the distillate might be. my guess is ethyl acetate and ethanol?

Has anyone tried this? Can you share with me your experience? did you re distill it? And how did you dry the final product?

thanks alot for the help.

redox - 30-8-2011 at 19:49

I have done this distillation, I collected the distillate between 74C and 79C. I did not redistill or dry the product, I will once I actually need to use it.

What brand did you use? It does have an MSDS or an ingredients, doesn't it? You should be able to predict what is distilling if you have these resources.

[Edited on 1-9-2011 by redox]

jamit - 30-8-2011 at 20:16

it's the walmart brand and it has a list of ingredient starting with ethyl acetate and ethanol, etc.

How you would dry it and what drying agent would you use? thanks.

ldanielrosa - 30-8-2011 at 22:35

I have also done this distillation. I did not redistill. My means of measuring the temperature were not as accurate as I would like (pyrometer).

The olfactory analysis detected no difference between the distillate and lab grade ethyl acetate, so I'm confident that I left the perfume behind- but I probably have a substantial portion of the ethanol.

I dried with magnesium sulfate.

aonomus - 31-8-2011 at 04:24

The thought comes to mind that if there is any water in the formulation, it will azeotrope with the ethyl acetate. Chances are you'll have to break the azeotrope with some drying agent and redistill anyway.

Bot0nist - 31-8-2011 at 05:57

I use the pink walmart brand. I always stir with distilled water and then separate in a separatory funnel before distilling with a desiccant. As far as I can tell no coloring or perfume comes over in the fraction at ~ 76C. A good strong desiccant is needed to break the azeotrope I bet.

not_important - 31-8-2011 at 06:14

Most common desiccants lose effectiveness at moderate temperatures, thus distilling from them does little useful. It's etter to add the desiccant, stir and let settle, then filter it off.

For this particular problem using CaCl2 will result in the removal of both water and free alcohol, as well as some ketones.

Bot0nist - 31-8-2011 at 16:52

Quote: Originally posted by not_important  
Most common desiccants lose effectiveness at moderate temperatures, thus distilling from them does little useful. It's etter to add the desiccant, stir and let settle, then filter it off.

For this particular problem using CaCl2 will result in the removal of both water and free alcohol, as well as some ketones.


I read this a while back and it prompted me to distill off of the salt.
Quote: Originally posted by vulture  
If you combine drying with distillation (that is put the salt in your boiling flask) you can get away with pretty weak stuff for drying your solvents.


Should I disregard this as a falsehood? I need to check Vogel's I think.

What you say does make sense though. I thought it would only matter if the BP of you distillate is close to the point at which the salt will start drying. Can you please point me to some reading on this phenomenon?

jamit - 31-8-2011 at 20:26

I tried using CaCl2 as a dessicant to remove water and any excess alcohol... but it left the solution cloudly and no amount of filtering will get rid of it. I guess I now have to redistill it.

I read the msds and all the additives are high boiling pt so anything between 72C to 85C should be ok and should contain ethyl acetate and ethanol. Am I right on this?

Here's what I'm going to try: I will add anhydrous magnesium sulfate and decant and redistill. Has anyone tried this themselves and can speak on this from experience?

firecreature - 20-9-2011 at 16:27

Youtube Channel myst32YT does a great job explaining the distillation procedure and drying of the final product. hope this helps

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzgWq7Dtn3U&feature=chann...

jamit - 20-9-2011 at 21:18

thanks. I already saw the youtube video by myst. However he skips over that final stage of purification. I just want my ethyl acetate to come over closer to 77.1C. I don't mind the mixture of ethyl alcohol but anything else is not good.

I'm looking for help from someone who has actually done the experiment and have successfully or not, purified OTC ethyl acetate. thanks.

ethyl acetate distillation/nail polish remover

tanglo_saxon - 23-4-2012 at 04:56

i want to distill ethyl acetate from an acetone free nail polish remover, trouble is it also contains ethanol so the boiling points make fractional distillation a pain in the ass.

question is can i saturate the distillate with salt to separate the ethyl acetate, i am presuming salt is more soluble in ethanol and it will seperate out.

thanks anyone..

would it be easier with an isopropyl alcohol based nail polish remover?

tanglo_saxon - 23-4-2012 at 05:01

hold up i am thinking about separating isopropyl.. im distilling the ethyl acetate/ethanol based mixture now and there is a hell of a lot of stuff distilling over at 51-55 C..
now i think the azeotrope boils at 72.45?

[Edited on 23-4-2012 by tanglo_saxon]

bbartlog - 23-4-2012 at 06:00

Quote:
i am presuming salt is more soluble in ethanol and it will seperate out.


No
Quote:
im distilling the ethyl acetate/ethanol based mixture now and there is a hell of a lot of stuff distilling over at 51-55 C


Wild guess would be that you have methyl acetate / methanol rather than ethyl acetate / ethanol. Do you have an MSDS for your product?

Funkerman23 - 23-4-2012 at 18:28

Dumb as this may be, this might help:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzgWq7Dtn3U

aliced25 - 24-4-2012 at 01:30

If you add a salt, say calcium chloride, shake the piss out of the mixture, add more CaCl2 until you have solid lumps undissolved in the mix and shake again. Continue until you have two layers, now separate them (as usual what is in that particular solvent will decide what layer is what - I suggest keeping the significantly larger layer:)).

Salt it out again, separate again. Any aliphatic alcohol should form a complex with the CaCl2 and stay in the aqueous layer, so when you separate it you should have predominantly EtOAc. It may be worthwhile trying to salt it out again after distillation, there are a number of dyes and other crap that stay in the pot when you distill it, they may or may not prevent removal of the alcohols. I do recall doing this and the boiling point was off by a few degrees, maybe add water and additional CaCl2 to allow complete separation (don't go overboard, EtOAc is appreciably soluble in water).

Don't try and distill after adding salt & before separating (I've known of at least one person who did so), it is pointless and time consuming.

bbartlog - 19-5-2012 at 04:44

For what it's worth, the 'Klean Strip' brand Methyl Ethyl Ketone substitute that is now sold by Lowe's and other big-box US hardware stores is listed as 100% ethyl acetate on the MSDS. So while I can't buy MEK at those places any more, at least the substitute is interesting in its own right, and likely more economical than nail polish remover.

madcedar - 19-5-2012 at 05:08

From United States Patent 4379028 - Separation of ethyl acetate from ethanol and water by extractive distillation

A ternary azeotrope exists between ethyl acetate, ethanol and water.
Quote:

a ternary azeotrope boiling at 70.2° C. and comprising 82.16% ethyl acetate, 8.4% ethanol and 9% water comes off


[Edited on 19-5-2012 by madcedar]

S.C. Wack - 19-5-2012 at 08:50

Quote: Originally posted by bbartlog  
100% ethyl acetate on the MSDS.


Shit that's been around but no one else looked it up - maybe we all expected useless crap...will it last. If that's not worth a woot IDK...wooooot.

I was wondering why only quart sizes of MEK were available lately...it's been discontinued. I better go get any remaining Sunnyside MEK...after hitting all the stores for ethyl acetate.

[Edited on 19-5-2012 by S.C. Wack]

"Good news everyone!"

The WiZard is In - 13-10-2013 at 15:55

Lowes (and my local Home Depot and local hardware stores)
until v/ recently carried Clean-Strip brand solvents,
e.g., MEK, acetone, toluene, &c. Clean-Strip had stop supplying
MEK. Went to Lowes this AM for some paint remover, &c.,
Wow - Lowes now carries a different brand of solvents including
MEK.


djh
----
Speaking of "paint stripper" — the latest
ed of Fine Home Building has a review of
paint strippers, it is apparently not easy being an Eco-nut.
The top rated nasty MEK based product Kean-Strip
KS-3 did the work in 1h 35m with one application,
uber Green Zinssner Magic Strip Paint & Varnish
Remover required 143h 00m and 10 coats!

A note on safety ... use rubber gloves no matter what
brand you use, however, not the nitrile rubber ones (blue)
MEK eats through nitrile rubber that fast. Use latex surgeons
gloves, you know, like the ones your (gender- neutral) friend
uses for "Seven knots to heaven."

Random - 18-12-2013 at 09:27

The wizard is actually alive