33 replies to this topic

[fruitfulsteve]

I have just been given a box of chemicals by a friend that does house clearances. A few of the bottles don't have labels i have worked out wat most of them are but i'm not so sure about a 2.5l white plastic 'winchester' bottle containing a sweetish smelling solvent:- missable in water, disolves 'parlon', doesn't desolve PVC or styrene, don't smell like acetone, iso propanol, naptha, benzene, chloroform, xylene....

 

Any suggestions ???

 

Sorry about spelling but no spell check for some reason.

[whoof]

I
styrene, don't smell like acetone, iso propanol, naptha, benzene, chloroform, xylene....

Any suggestions ???

Sorry about spelling but no spell check for some reason.

You must be a bit dizzy after that lot.
What are the other solvents ? I may get a clue from that.

What were his hobbies ?
How does it burn.?
And you know that difficult to remove adhesive left by tape / labels sometimes, how does it work on that.?

Edited by whoof, 25 April 2013 - 07:30 PM.

[fruitfulsteve]

Yes a little

 

I have asked my friend to ask his widow what he did and i'm awaiting his reply.

 

Other chemicals in the 'lot' are ; xylene, methanol, naptha, chloroform, benzene, copper sulphate solution (labeled as copper plating solution), ammonia 35%, acetic, hydrochloric, nitric, sulphuric acids (all conc), gylcerine (yes i know worried me to) standard saline solution, ammonium carbonate solution, plus a light green/grey powder in a old jar on which the only word i can make out is 'arendal' a place in Norway apparently. Then their are the 3 white plastic winchesters 2 smell a lot like the blocks you see in urinals in pubs etc the other is the one i'm working on trying to identify. Another clue are several coffee jars of what appear to be crude oil in various viscositys and some shell and mobile oils in consumer packaging (these could be unrelated)

 

I'm guessing he 'liberated' this lot when he retired but can't be sure.

 

It burns very clean with no smoke or residue on the glass petri dish i placed above it.

 

It disolves label addesive very quickly (tested on printer labels that have a sortof black backing that it also disolved)

[whoof]

Burns clean, probably not toluene then.
I wondered about alcohols but that's already listed.
Green powder could be nickel sulphate as it is in context.(plating)
Ammonia and ammonium carbonate feature in old recipes for mirror silvering.
Glycerol used to be used in old plating brightening mixes.
Solvents could just be for cleaning.

Any tin compounds ?

Edit , could it be ethanol ?

Ether?

Bit of an odd collection there.
What is the one that smells like toilet blocks ? Clorohexanone ?

Edited by whoof, 26 April 2013 - 01:36 PM.

[fruitfulsteve]

Powder is non soluble in water/dilute HCL, and i have managed to make out 320 and i think the word grit (with the aid of a magnifieing glass) so i'm thinking some kind of grinding/polishing purpose.

 

Dosn't smell like ethanol and don't evaporate fast enough for ether, i think the fact that it disolves parlon eliminate a lot of solvents. I did see a list of solvents that do disolve parlon but can't remember where ?? could also have a little bit of a acetic acid tinge to it so possibly ethyl acetate but i'm fairly sure that ethyl acetate doesn't disolve parlon.

 

It's all rather old so i'm wondering if it maybe acetone that has gone off/got contaminated ??

 

I'm having second thoughts about smelling like toilet blocks (i think i may have sniffed to many solvents in quick sucsssion) i'm gonna do some more tests on this stuff once i've cleaned up from testing the first one. I have burnt some and it seems to burn very clean (slight orange tint to top of flame.

 

Yes it is a bit of a odd collection.

 

Does clorohexanone have a chlorine tint to it ?

[whoof]

Arendal in Norway has a large carbide factory so quite possible.

Clorohexanone , stuff I have has a very slight green/yellow tint, but there may be other stuff in it.
See if it dissolves PVC.
Not used it for origional purpose for 25 years but kept a bit because it is excellent for removing stubborn adhesive.

Edited by whoof, 26 April 2013 - 04:27 PM.

[fruitfulsteve]

Carbide maks sense.

 

This stuff is clear i'll check if it disolves PVC when i do some tests on it.

[fruitfulsteve]

The ammonium carbonate is actually conc HCL (despite the eatched ammonium carbonate on the bottle) i don't think this chap was one for accurate labeling

[whoof]

I hope you did not determine that with a sniff test.
Are you still here ?

Edit
Discovered that clorohexanone is clear but turns brown with age, mine however remains pale yellow and I know that it is at least 70% chlorohexanone.something else must stabilise it.
Apparently it is seldom made pure, additives , other solvents are added.

It is fairly common for blends of solvents to be made for specific applications.
Best bet is probably to find out what he did.

My stuff has a sweet cloying solvent odour.

If you have been in a print shop before they switched away from solvent processes , it's that smell.

Acetone that's gone off, don't think so, contaminated possibly but the acetone smell would remain.
I have acetone I have had for 30+ yrs with no degradation, I don't think it does.

Edited by whoof, 28 April 2013 - 12:24 AM.

[PyroSkitz]

just a sugestion...Amyl Acetate if it has a sweet smell, or a butyl ether, my only basis for this being of the sweet smell, did you sniff test the chlorform, im interested to know if you woke up 2 hours later going, well, at least we know what that was.. haha!!

 

im very curious to know why this man has a collection of various solvents which dont seem to combine to any hobbies ive heard of!!!

[whoof]

I've been pondering over the weekend, I realised that if the carbide is the joker , all the rest can be explained by the three traditional printing methods.
Lots of different solvents there possibly so may be difficult to identify.
Not many that dissolve PVC though.

Edit

Coffee jars , could they be inks ?

Edited by whoof, 28 April 2013 - 04:40 PM.

[fruitfulsteve]

I'm hoping to sneak off early tomoz and do some more tests.

 

A quick 'sniff test' of the so called ammonium carbonate was my first clue i then added a little to a little copper carbonate which formed copper chloride as i suspected it would i then added that to a small aluminium weigh boat which bubbled and steamed a bit leaving a burnt looking mess with a thin copper coating....just for fun!!

 

As far as i'm aware this chap was a professional chemist, i suspect petro chemical industry. Definetly nasty gooey stinky crude oil in the coffee jars.

 

Will amyl acetate/butyl ether disolve parlon ? It says chloroform on the label and a quick 'sniff test' confirmed thats wat it was, i think you have to 'sniff' a fair bit of chloroform to knock yaself out !!

 

You could be on to something with the 'solvent blend' idea.

 

I'm thinking the copper plating and carbide could be unrelated to the solvents but ended up in the same box.

[fruitfulsteve]

I'm now thinking slightly contaminated acetone, having dropped a little polystyrene packageing in a small sample it bubbld and disolved the polystyrene. As far as i'm aware acetone is the only common non petrol smelling solvent that does that........but it wouldn't be the first time i was wrong

 

I think i see the list of parlon disolving solvents on pyroguide but when i looked earlier the main site seems to have disapeared.

[Arthur Brown]

http://en.wikipedia....ion_of_solvents

http://www.wuestgrou... Properties.pdf

http://www.brandtech.com/solbps.asp

 

May throw some light on the situation

[fruitfulsteve]

Thanks Arthur.

 

I have considered boiling point/density tests but as i'm now thinking they may be blends of solvents i feel it could be a little misleading.

 

I'm probably going to end up using them in some coloured fireball effect as i can't be sure of exactly wat/how pure they are and they do seem to burn pretty clean.