Chemical Forums
Specialty Chemistry Forums => Citizen Chemist => Topic started by: RisingEastStar17 on February 16, 2022, 02:36:02 AM
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I was thinking about this the other day. Until lately, I have always being using diethyl ether and toluene as my solvent of choice when I was recommended to try chloroform. And long story short, it definitely works really good with extractions but not so much as a general solvent. In terms of money, would using chloroform be much cheaper to use or staying with diethyl ether?
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It is my understanding that solubility of the substance may be a factor in some instances. I recall hearing a spectroscopist discussing unknown impurities that he was often tasked to identify. For him chloroform was the go-to solvent.
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Obviously it does depend on exact use, but don't forget NMR standards and dichlorocarbenes..
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Great for extractions/separations because it's heavier than (and highly immiscible with) water. I did my PhD work with porphyrins so it was also very useful as synthetic and analytical solvent because it is non-coordinating (does not readily coordinate to metal ions). Finally, it better than a lot of aromatic organic solvents (like toluene) for spectroscopic expts because it is pretty much UV-Vis and fluorescence silent. As FTIR solvent it isn't nearly as good as carbon tetrachloride, but... well, ya know. Don't wanna die.