Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Removal of dimethyl sulfide from DMSO

Dank - 30-7-2016 at 19:44

Is there a good procedure for this? I assumed boiling it would do the job as DMSO boils at 190ish C and dimethyl sulfide boils at 37C but the stench is still there. :(

Perhaps oxidation with H2O2 followed by distillation? The odor is really unpleasant.

JnPS - 30-7-2016 at 20:39

Maybe separating it with water? DMSO is miscible with water while dimethyl sulfide is insoluble in water, if you add the two to a separatory funnel shouldn't the DMSO diffuse with the water leaving the dimethyl sulfide behind as the upper layer? Then dry the DMSO with a drying agent afterwards? Never tried anything like this but it seems plausible to me.

Feel free to correct me, anyone have any other ideas?

[Edited on 31-7-2016 by JnPS]

Dank - 30-7-2016 at 20:58

The thing is I'm trying to remove traces as a small amount of dimethyl sulfide will make my entire lab stink of sewage.. According to wikipedia the olfactory threshold is something like 0.1ppm

unionised - 31-7-2016 at 00:46

Titrate it out with hydrogen peroxide?
Might work, but I'm not sure if the oxidation of the sulphide or the sulphoxide is quicker.

You can sometimes strip out sulphides by passing the material through a layer of copper hydroxide.