DavidJR
National Hazard
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Where to buy carbonate esters (UK/EU)
Does anyone have any good sources for carbonate esters in the UK/EU? None of my usual suppliers have any (with the exception of Limac, which has
dimethyl carbonate, but at a fairly high price).
In particular I'm interested in dimethyl carbonate, but other esters like ethylene carbonate or propylene carbonate could be useful too.
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clearly_not_atara
International Hazard
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Dimethyl carbonate is supposedly a VOC compliant solvent for e.g. paint removal and other cleaning purposes in non-industrial contexts, including home
use. I found this pretty shocking when I heard it, but I guess the toxicity must be pretty low if the powers that be consider it safe -- I would think
that being metabolized to methanol is an instant fail, but someone disagrees.
Propylene and ethylene carbonate have extremely low vapor pressures which would make them unsuitable for general cleaning purposes as the "residue"
will remain for a long time. As such I doubt you'll find them from the same general purpose suppliers as DMC. Methyl ethyl carbonate and diethyl
carbonate are both simply worse than DMC from the standpoint of both flammability and vapor pressure, but they are common battery electrolyte
solvents.
Anyway, dimethyl carbonate is on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/MG-Chemicals-Dimethyl-Carbonate-Exemp...
It's not clear if it can be shipped to the UK.
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DavidJR
National Hazard
Posts: 908
Registered: 1-1-2018
Location: Scotland
Member Is Offline
Mood: Tired
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Quote: Originally posted by clearly_not_atara  | Dimethyl carbonate is supposedly a VOC compliant solvent for e.g. paint removal and other cleaning purposes in non-industrial contexts, including home
use. I found this pretty shocking when I heard it, but I guess the toxicity must be pretty low if the powers that be consider it safe -- I would think
that being metabolized to methanol is an instant fail, but someone disagrees.
Propylene and ethylene carbonate have extremely low vapor pressures which would make them unsuitable for general cleaning purposes as the "residue"
will remain for a long time. As such I doubt you'll find them from the same general purpose suppliers as DMC. Methyl ethyl carbonate and diethyl
carbonate are both simply worse than DMC from the standpoint of both flammability and vapor pressure, but they are common battery electrolyte
solvents.
Anyway, dimethyl carbonate is on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/MG-Chemicals-Dimethyl-Carbonate-Exemp...
It's not clear if it can be shipped to the UK. |
Amazon won't ship chemicals internationally it seems - I can order lots of random stuff from the US catalogue, but not chemicals (even relatively
nonhazardous ones) unfortunately. It's a shame because that is not a bad price.
I haven't noticed any consumer products on sale in the UK containing DMC, but I haven't done an extensive search yet. I guess if it's only being used
because of the regulatory situation in the US, then there may be no motivation for companies here to use it instead of cheaper alternatives.
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