Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Dimethicone etal anything useful?

NEMO-Chemistry - 21-10-2017 at 10:34

I make soap and bodycare products, shampoos and different creams.

I used to follow alot of common recipes that called for things like Dimethicone. I ended up with bottles of :-

Dimethicone
Methicone
Cyclomethicone
Dimethiconol

Looking back I could of substituted most of them with just one or two from the above list, at the time i used to go out and get what the recipe called for.

Some of these are now maybe 3-4 years old and some bottles have not been opened. I have between 1-5 ltrs of each of these unopened. the opened ones that I havnt used for more than 12 months will be disposed of.

My question is, apart from cosmetic uses, is there much else these are worth keeping for? I wondered if any have use as solvents or maybe oil baths?? Perhaps as greasing or oiling agents on joints?

I hate throwing things out, but even having a bit of a google, i didnt find much use for these. So are they worth keeping? And secondly is there anything cool i can with them?

The only artificial ingredients i tend to use now, are antimicrobial with creams etc, or anything that contains water. With things like those I normally use a product called PG80. Otherwise I prefer to now use all natural ingredients where I can.

The use of natural products is mainly a commercial decision rather than an ideological one.

I could also add

TSTP and SLS to the above list, i no longer tend to these now, except the TSTP which is great from cleaning some types of gunk out of glass.

unionised - 21-10-2017 at 11:00

I'm pretty sure the silicon oil used as a heat transfer fluid is the same sort of stuff, so use as a n oil bath looks reasonable.
Sometimes an anti foaming agent is helpful in distillations but I'm not sure if they are just silicone. or have something added.

NEMO-Chemistry - 21-10-2017 at 11:25

I will look into the anti foaming agent side in reactions, some obviously are used for anti foaming in cosmetics, so there must be other organic reactions where they could be used.

Thx for the idea i will look into that side of it. Would be a shame to dispose of them and then find a use! When I got most of them, the price per ltr was really reasonable, but looking at the place where I got them from, the prices seem to have increased alot.

the other use I may have found, is perhaps as a demolding/non sticking agent for when I make silicon molds.

SWIM - 21-10-2017 at 11:26

These materials are also used in the 'personal lubricant' industry, so you could always consider branching out from your soap business into the more intimate side of the personal care market.


NEMO-Chemistry - 21-10-2017 at 11:38

Quote: Originally posted by SWIM  
These materials are also used in the 'personal lubricant' industry, so you could always consider branching out from your soap business into the more intimate side of the personal care market.



I wont ask, i will google this..... Your knowledge of slightly odd things and uses is remarkable! Sometimes you post stuff and I really want to ask how you know, but then again I often think, NO i dont want to know :D.

LOL great business idea though, although i will be honest and say I am not 100% sure which 'bit' is being lubricated. PLEASE dont answer this, a quiet google when no one is around is sufficient for me :P