Methylene Chloride

[Microtek]

Has anyone got a good synthesis of methylene chloride ( CH2Cl2 ) which can be done in the home lab ? If possible, post a few alternate methods even if they are not optimal, as I do not have access to many of the precursors that the rest of you do.

[Mr Cool]

I'm not sure if it'd work, but the first thing I thought of was formaldehyde and hydrogen chloride (aqueous or gaseous).

CH2O + 2HCl --> CH2Cl2 + H2O

Try mixing 37% formaldehyde solution and 30% HCl (both can be bought easily in hardware/DIY stores), and see if anything happens...

[shooter3]

Methylene Cloride is a cheap solvent used in cleaning up epoxy resin. Most marine supply stores carry "West Marine" brand M.C. for about $18.00 Gallon.

[Berserker]

It's also known as dichloromethane, and apparently it can be bought in big drums at paint and varnish stores. From memory, it the main costituent of some sort of car starter fluid, along with some ethanol, I believe.

[Anthony]

When I look at paint stipping products in a DIY store, about 90% of them say "contains dichlomethane and methanol". It may be possible that a nice cheap brand is just methylene chloride and methanol without any other funky shit added.

[Microtek]

The problem is that I live in one of those countries which discourages the use of many chemicals ( but is rather lenient on some others ). I can get 62% HNO3, 96% H2SO4, hexamine, 30% HCl, 40% H2O2 and many technical grades of other chemicals, but methanol, formaldehyde soln, urea, etc are unavailable.

[Microtek]

Just in case there are some that don't know:
Methylene chloride can be used to extract
98-100% HNO3 from a mix of 90+% H2SO4 and 40+% HNO3. The method seems easy ( and it's patentet, so it should be functional ), and the methylene chloride could be recovered after the extraction, so in essence it's only the HNO3 that is consumed. Also, there is no need to heat the HNO3 to more than 40C, so decomposition should not be a problem. Yield can be as high as 80%.
All in all, I think this is a worthwhile method to persue.

[10fingers]

Microtek, I saw the patent for this and it sounds very interesting. I think it was originally posted by Tony Montana a few weeks ago. He was going to try it but as yet I have not heard what happened.
Also, I have been doing a lot of searching for a procedure to make methylene chloride but strangely cannot find anything.
Most paint removers contain it but it has other ingredients and it would probably not be worthwhile to separate them.

[Demolition]

I can get paint stripper containing 90% Methylene Chloride and 10% methanol.If I wish to use this would I have to separate the methanol from the methylene chloride?If so how would I go about doing this.


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[Microtek]

You can distil off the CH2Cl2 ( bp ca 40C ).
The vapors are heavier than air, so a very simple setup can be used.
Could you specify which brand it is that has this high a content of CH2Cl2?

[CodeMason]

I think it can be done by the reaction of methane and chlorine gasses in the presence of UV radiation. So whip out that dark lamp and head out to the ol' compost heap. http://theforum.virtualave.net/ubb/smilies/smile.gif

[Microtek]

I found two ways to make it:

- The one with chlorine and methane gas and UV light, which is a bit cumbersome for me

- Catalytical hydrochlorination of methanol ( this was all it said ). This sounds somewhat more interesting, depending on what sort of catalyst you'd need.

[wantsomfet]

The patent is US Pat No. 3,981,975 "Preparation of anhydrous nitric acid"
It's on my site... http://rain.prohosting.com/~fussba09/P_3,981,975.zip

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[Tony Montana]

Microtek, it does not say where you are from, so???? But I assume you want to concentrate HNO3, anyway CH2CL2 (Methylene Chloride) is widely available. I purchase it from a store that thinks I use it as a urethane solvent, that is from: http://www.oilchem.com.au/ but I am sure you can find a store like this near you? As stated it is also widely used as a paint stripper, http://www.solvents.net/MSDS/Methclor.htm but this is in Australia! I have used this chemical, and can understand its carcinogenic and also hemogloban altering properties, if you do get it, and use it. Think about why so many people stopped using it!!!!!(same as carbon tetrachloride)and wear a gas mask!
BE SAFE, TM

[SATANIC]

i found it at woolworths / roelf vos in aus, 960 gm / L methylene chloride, 130 gm / L methanol. ( 500ml for$10 )how would you seperate the two, and how is the process of concentrated nitric acid carried out? can't download that damn patent.

[Demolition]

In short equal parts of 70% hno3 and 98% are added.Methylene chloride is then added,stirred and mixed up with the hno3 and h2so4.After leaving it for a little while 2 distinct layers should form.Remove the top layer using an eye dropper,ect and then leave the bottom mixture outside for a while,the methylene chloride will evaporate off leaving you with 98%+ nitric acid.
The patent covers it in more detail.
To distill the methylene chloride out of that paint stripper im guessing you could simply boil it at 40C,collect the vapors in tubing running it under cold water into another flask to collect pure Methylene chloride.I know its vague but I'm pretty sure you get the picture.Would this method work?

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