[budullewraagh]

i intend to obtain iodine (and a little bromine) from seaweed ashes using the acidification and oxidation process.  for the acid i will be using 30-40% sulfuric and for the oxidizing agent, i will be using 70-90% hydrogen peroxide.  of course, this will leave me with peroxymonosulfuric acid and my halogens.  i intend to then add another solvent to dissolve the halogens and not mix with the peroxymonosulfuric.  then i will separate the peroxymonosulfuric and the organic solvent, and allow the solvent to vaporize.  i was thinking that dichloromethane or tetrachloromethane would work, although i am not so sure.

do you have any ideas as to what i could use?  i certainly will not be using acetone because acetone peroxide isn't remotely desirable.  also, does anybody know of a good way to synthesize dichloromethane and/or tetrachloromethane?

[Mitch]

methanol is very useful for dissolving halogens.

[jdurg]

chloroform will work very well, as will the already mentioned carbon tetrachloride.  (Tetrachloromethane).

[budullewraagh]

ok then, how would i go about preparing dichloromethane, or better yet, how could i obtain pure methanol?

[Limpet Chicken]

Methanol is found in some car de-icers, and can be dry-distilled from wood shavings, dichloromethane is found in nitro-moors paint remover, and some others, in an azeotrope with methanol, perhaps you could form a tertiary azeotrope with toluene or xylene, then add water to form a layer, it should form a layer of MeOH with the methanol saving the DCM, cool it first, as DCM is very volatile.

You could most likely save the methanol, by salting out the MeOH and collecting anhydrous methanol.

DO NOT use an organic solvent though, do you not remember what happens with peroxymonosulfuric acid and organics? most likely, if you use organic compounds anywhere in a reaction with H2SO5, you will WISH you had made acetone peroxide.

Caro's acid has been known to cause detonations in contact with organics, mixing with a few liters of organic solvent sounds like you might as well be preparing that other experiment with the 30l of NCl3 right away

[AWK]

Methanol will not work because it is miscible with water

[budullewraagh]

actually, i suppose i could use a lewis base and neutralize the acidity.  would, say, sodium persulfate be particularly dangerous to touch?