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McLovin382
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Chloroform disposal
I have a small amount of undistilled chloroform that I'd like to get rid of. I don't want to put something like that down the drain or into nature or
anything but itd also be a pain to dispose 'properly' of such a small amount.
Is there a way to destroy chloroform (and other organic waste a chemist is likely to have to deal with) yourself?
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UnintentionalChaos
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Let it sit for a long time with concentrated lye solution in a tightly capped polyethylene bottle. The end product is a mix of formate and chloride,
which can both be safely flushed.
Department of Redundancy Department - Now with paperwork!
'In organic synthesis, we call decomposition products "crap", however this is not a IUPAC approved nomenclature.' -Nicodem
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granitestaterecovery
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chloroform can be contained in a handkerchief and disposed with the intended abducted.and if there is money in there pocket this pays for itself. or
donate it to the science lab anonymously.
Honestly you can probably. ask some one in chemistry dept of school
Granite State Recovery & Recycling
All our scars in life are self inflicted
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McLovin382
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lol granite. Well I'm not in school atm but I guess I could ask someone there anyways. They might look at me funny :p
What if I put it in NaOH solution like UnintentionalChaos said, and add some hydrogenation catalyst like magnesium shavings or something...would that
potentially catalyze the decomposition? (Don't suppose I have any true reducing agents that could supply a steady stream of H2 in there)
[Edited on 28-12-2008 by McLovin382]
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woelen
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How much chloroform do want to get rid of? If there only is a few 100's of ml, then take an old towel or a big heap of paper tissue, put this outside
and pour the chloroform on the towel and let it evaporate. The towel can be thrown away with normal waste. Do this on a windy and dry day! Chloroform
disperses quickly in the atmosphere and soon is hydrolysed to harmless chemicals (CO2 and chlorides). In this way I get rid of small amounts of
organic volatile chemicals, usually with quantities in the 1 ..5 ml range.
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UnintentionalChaos
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It's not a hydrogenation that is occuring. It's a hydrolysis. The net effect is to replace all three Cl with OH, which dehydrates to formate. The only
way I can think to help it along is a phase transfer catalyst if there is some chloroform that isn't dissolved.
Department of Redundancy Department - Now with paperwork!
'In organic synthesis, we call decomposition products "crap", however this is not a IUPAC approved nomenclature.' -Nicodem
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saintmichael
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You might want to be careful with UnintentionalChaos' method, since I've heard of Chloroform waste bottles detonating in the presence of a base
especially if there's any acetone with it.
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BromicAcid
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The danger is if chloroform comes into contact with solid sodium or potassium hydroxide. That is when the exothermic even can become unmanageable.
Also, vigorous stirring will help since it will be biphasic.
Aluminium/nickel alloys in the presence of base can chew up chlorinated organics.
I believe fentons reagent (H<sub>2</sub>O<sub>2</sub> with catalytic Fe<sup>3+</sup> can also take care of chlorinated organics.
Thanks for being environmentally concious, most people forget that chloroform is a priority pollutant and a D-listed chemical.
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vulture
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| Quote: |
If there only is a few 100's of ml, then take an old towel or a big heap of paper tissue, put this outside and pour the chloroform on the towel and
let it evaporate. |
Then you might as well pour it down the drain! Letting it evaporate releases it into the environment too.
One shouldn't accept or resort to the mutilation of science to appease the mentally impaired.
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McLovin382
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It's not an amount that would necessarily harm the environment...just a bit of the stuff made in a small bottle via a basic reaction between NaOCl and
EtOH.
Thanks for responding guys 
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woelen
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| Quote: | Originally posted by vulture
| Quote: |
If there only is a few 100's of ml, then take an old towel or a big heap of paper tissue, put this outside and pour the chloroform on the towel and
let it evaporate. |
Then you might as well pour it down the drain! Letting it evaporate releases it into the environment too. |
For me there is a difference between pouring it down the drain and letting it evaporate. If it is poured down the drain, then it is released in high
concentration and it may harm aqueous life (it also damages your tubing if this is made of PVC). If it is released into the atmosphere then it becomes
so dilute that no animal will be harmed.
I can freely say this, because the number of people who release chloroform in the atmosphere is VERY low. If this were common practice for every
household, then it would be no good, but if this is done by a few hobbyists, who do this once in a lifetime or maybe a few times in their life, then I
see no real harm. It has to be put in perspective.
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DJF90
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Chloroform is involved in the depletion of the ozone layer due to photochemical reactions that occur in the atmosphere. 1-2 mls is "acceptable", "a
few 100's of ml" is not, especially if there is a method of destroying the chloroform rather than releasing it into the environment.
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Diablo
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It could be further oxidized to chlorobutanol.
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AndersHoveland
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Chloroform can be refluxed (heating in a special flask to cycle the boiled vapors back) with aqueous sodium hydroxide solution for 2 hours to form
sodium formate and sodium chloride.
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AJKOER
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To your CHCl3 add dilute H2O2 and Na2CO3 (or just add OxyClean and a little water), shake and leave in an open container outside in sunlight.
Source for my suggested recipe: http://www.postech.ac.kr/see/art/journal/es&t31.pdf
To quote from the left hand bottom of page 93: "the CHCl3 dechlorination rates (Figure 3a) increase rapidly at pH > 10 in O2 saturated
suspensions". The author also states that photo-oxidation in the presence of dissolved oxygen is a major pathway for haloform degradation. The
hydrolysis reaction per the author's equation (16) is:
CHCl3 + H2O --> CO (g) + 3 HCl (aq)
which, I would argue, is moved to the right in the presence of light and Na2CO3. In the presence of light and H2O2, my take on the reaction:
CHCl3 + H2O2 --> CO2 (g) + 3 HCl (aq)
based on the author's equation (11).
So, if proved effective, my recipe would be simple and relatively cheap (and most likely mother approved) with the final product salt water.
[Edited on 4-7-2012 by AJKOER]
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kristofvagyok
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It could be easily disposed by let it evaporating, like as woelen said. It is not that toxic and not as harmful for the ozone layer as you think.
Also another short info: night butterflies are collected by a lamp. These lamps are placed somewhere out, far from cities in complete darkness. The
butterflies come to the light and they die because a circa 100cm3 chloroform ampoulle is placed in the center of the "lamp". When the sun raises
someone goes there, collects the "loot" and places a new chloroform ampoulle. With this they could identify how is the butterfly population.
So several liters of chloroform is evaporating every night....
I have a blog where I post my pictures from my work: http://labphoto.tumblr.com/
-Pictures from chemistry, check it out(:
"You can’t become a chemist and expect to live forever." |
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quantumcorespacealchemyst
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link is dead, this is archive https://web.archive.org/web/20040327063908/http://www.postec...
attached is pdf
i read that sodium cinnamate does something about dissolving things between layers, and that it is photo activated, i have found little data about it
although i havent found an inexpensive source of cinnamaldehyde, i am wondering about it for the production of sodium cinnimate in haloform with
naocl.
i am wondering if this is a good decompostion catalyst of chloroform when alone and/or with NaOH solution
also if dry NaOH and CHCl3 react vigorously, what about passing the vapor of chloroform over a bed of NaOH in a reaction vessel? for gas products for
other reactions
Attachment: es&t31.pdf (321kB)
This file has been downloaded 595 times
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Amos
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The NaOH method is tried and true, safe, and easy to conduct, and it really doesn't take very long. It's so fast in fact that the chloroform produced
in the haloform reaction is constantly being eliminated, and if you wait too long to remove it, you'll end up with a severely damaged yield.
There's no reason to try anything else, IMO. By the time you can no longer smell any chloroform after shaking the container nor see any phase boundary
within the mixture, it's probably a safe bet that the NaOH has done the job.
[Edited on 12-7-2014 by No Tears Only Dreams Now]
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unionised
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I suspect that, even if no deliberate attempt was made to dispose of it, the stuff will have evaporated in the intervening 6 years.
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Amos
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If the thread was revisited 6 years after the OP, who's to say that it won't still be visited by people with the same question?
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S.C. Wack
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Not necessarily if CO is a side product. Not if CHCl3 and and NaOH are put in a sealed container.
Why would anyone use solid NaOH? Surely ethanolic would be more effective? Surely it would work in water? Still, it is alleged that CO is a product,
especially at temperatures between room and chloroform's bp, reflux being most favorable for formate.
I predict that this will work without the addition of any chemical to the chloroform whatsoever.
Chloroform has close enough to zero ODP and GWP.
[Edited on 7-12-2014 by S.C. Wack]
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Amos
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So what you gleaned from my statement, in which I clearly said that there would be no reason to seal the container, is that the method might not work
because the container is sealed.
And I might've assumed that people trying to react away highly volatile carcinogens maybe would do so OUTSIDE, where CO wouldn't be too much of an
issue. But that's just me.
And not that I'm in anyway saying you're wrong, S.C. Wack, but this is the first I've heard of carbon monoxide being generated from the elimination of
chloroform using a hydroxide.
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S.C. Wack
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It should be clear that your quote was used by me to comment on safety. As usual I did not feel like quoting from every post in this thread to respond
to each snippet. See the other posts for relevance to my statements.
You are not expected to know that the usual equation giving formate need not apply (this is from over 100 years ago (Geuther, Thiele and Dent, Self)),
or that I have a tendency to reply to/be a Yossarian.
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AJKOER
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OK, the reason that even small 100 ml amounts of CHCl3 is a problem is because, per my recollection of the atmospheric chemistry, owes to its acting
in the role of a catalyst for ozone destruction.
As a result, it only stops destroying O3 when the catalyst effectively burns out. Again, I remember a figure of something like this occuring after
50,000 molecules of ozone are consumed for each molecule of CHCl3.
I may be able to dig up sources.
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S.C. Wack
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Or not.
How do you explain chloroform being missing from Montreal and ODP lists? Stupidity? Ignorance? Bribes from CHCl3 users and manufacturers? Being
naturally occurring, not photoreactive, and with a short atmospheric lifetime and general inability to reach the ozone layer?
Oxidation by ozone would actually be a great thing, since we'd be talking about ground level ozone aka pollution. Maybe China should be stocking up
for next time they hold some international prestige event so they don't have to shut everything off?
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