Hi,
I was extracting limonene from oranges using a distillation and collecting the product in a clear plastic measuring cylinder after it had finished no
layers were formed but when the water was poured off the measuring cylinder had a white coating on it. i can't get this off and have tried washing
with water. the cylinder smells strongly of oranges so i think it is limonene. Any idea how to recover this???
[Edited on 3-10-2018 by Housane]Heptylene - 3-10-2018 at 12:05
Have you tried washing with a solvent like ethanol? If you want to keep what you remove from the cylinder you can the evaporate/boil off the solvent.
If you just want to wash the cylinder, soap could work too.MrHomeScientist - 3-10-2018 at 12:11
Perhaps something slightly dissolved the plastic in the cylinder? So the white film might actually be etched and "frosted" plastic (analogy to frosted
glass).wg48 - 3-10-2018 at 12:36
Lemonene dissolves polystyrene so if your plastic cylinder was polystyrene you may have irreversible damaged it and contaminated the limonene. fusso - 3-10-2018 at 12:40
Hi i will try washing it with soap. the cylinder is made of PP
So is the blue gl45 cap I have on my limonene.
It is slightly being attacked even though liquid limonene never touches it.XeonTheMGPony - 4-10-2018 at 04:01
Welcome to the wonderful world of material compatibility charts, the first thing you look at befor even thinking about plastic!RogueRose - 4-10-2018 at 05:15
I'm guessing the limonene oxidized or partially dissolved the plastic. IIRC when I looked at the substance it had warnings about some plastics.DavidJR - 4-10-2018 at 07:36
Yeah limonene isn't great with plastics in general
