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Topic: Ethanol as a solvent issues.  (Read 1945 times)

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twocentfactory

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Ethanol as a solvent issues.
« on: March 18, 2015, 06:27:33 PM »
I've been able to distill regular grain alcohol (everclear) and get a higher concentration of ethanol for a solvent but the cost is pretty bad. I switched to using denatured alcohol as a solvent and it resulted in a very dark solution after I filtered it. Because of that, I decided to distill it and see if I could get just the ethanol. The problem is that all of it (if not all then at least 95 % ) distilled at 77-78 degrees Celsius so I'm guessing most is ethanol.I'm using a fireplace fuel, and on the sheet it says it has ethyl alcohol 1-100% and isopropyl  alochol 1-100% as the only composition/information on ingredients. I have also used other solvents and for some reason nothing gives me the best color as ethanol (everclear)
My questions:
1. What exactly did I get after the distillation?
2. If I got only the ethanol why is it giving me different results than the ethanol distilled from everclear?
3. What makes ethanol so different from other solvents? Since it seems like I get better results from Everclear. 

Also, and lastly, please be gentle I'm new to the whole forum thing.  :)

Offline Hunter2

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Re: Ethanol as a solvent issues.
« Reply #1 on: March 19, 2015, 01:55:20 AM »
Ethanol gives an azeotrop. With distillation its not possible to get 100% alcohol. It will be every time some water in it.

Quote
I switched to using denatured alcohol as a solvent and it resulted in a very dark solution after I filtered it.

I didn't get what you did here. You talking about distillation. What was this filter procedure for?

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