phenol

[zeocrash]

ok so i'd found some ways to make phenol, but one night when i was at the medicine cabinet i found that the caladril lotion i was using contained phenol. closer inspection of the ingredients revealed that there were very few liquid ingredients: water, gylcerol, sodium citrate_aq.
the other ingredient was zinc oxide. which was in suspension.
so to get phenol out of this lotion, i filter it, then distill it, using a hot water bath. (to ensure that a: the phenlo does not ignite and b: that the phenol evapourates considerably more than the water)
at the moment it appears to be working.
i was wondering if someone knew a test for phenol and a test for glycerol (to allow me to check the purity of the finished product).
also i was wondering if anyone had any ideas for improving the process.
i'll post the results soon

[Polverone]

What were the methods you found for phenol manufacture? Decarboxylation of salicylic acid and/or its salts?

I have an extremely hard time believing that there is enough phenol in your lotion to make the extraction worthwhile. I don't see how your use of a water bath for distillation can possibly evaporate the phenol faster than the water - maybe you meant the other way around?

Glycerol will form the extremely noxious compound acrolein if heated with concentrated sulfuric acid and/or sodium hydrogen sulfate. It might not be a very good test, but I'm sure your senses will will be able to distinguish between acrolein-containing air and acrolein-free air.

[zeocrash]

there was quite a bit of phenol, but it was quite a large bottle. fortunatly the stuff is very cheap. i'll post up details about the finished product some time

[A43tg37]

That "caladril" seems to basically be calamine lotion. I wish I had a bottle of calamine to check to see if it had phenol in it, but I don't. I did find a few things on the 'net, that had some information about how much phenol was in caladril/calamine, like: <a href="http://bnf.vhn.net/bnf/documents/bnf.2301.html" target="_blank">http://bnf.vhn.net/bnf/documents/bnf.2301.html</a> . None of the sites mentioned anything more than 1% phenol, though, and most (like the one above) said it only contained 0.5%, which seems to make it not an ideal source. It would probably be better to stic to decarboxylating salicylic acid, or mabye try distilling Campho-Phenique instead. Campho-Phenique is almost 5% phenol (4.7% to be exact), and basically just contains mineral oil, phenol, and camphor. As the boiling point of camphor is 204°C, and the boiling point of phenol is 183.5°C, it shouldn't be too difficult to distill off the phenol (i'm assuming that since Tesla coilers have been known to use mineral oil as insulation at between 200-250°C, it won't be a factor in the distillation. The main disadvantage of Campho-Phenique is its cost, at $2.75-$5 a bottle, but there may be a cheaper generic version, or one could always "acquire" some more cheaply than buying it, since the bottles are only four or four and a half ounces, and thus aren't too big to conceal on oneself and walk out of a drugstore...

[Alchemist]

Hello all,

A43tg37, do you know the yields for the decarboxylating salicylic acid to Phenol? Aspirin (Acetylsalicylic acid) can be easily hydrolysis'ed to Salicylic acid by refluxing with Sodium Hydroxide and then acidifying with Sulfuric acid to precipitate the Salicylic acid. Aspirin is really cheap, about a dollar for 250 tablets in the U.S.!

[A43tg37]

Alchemist,

I'm afraid I don't, and even after some searching on the Hive-I thought for sure they would have soemthing on this- I still don't (all I could find was some info on temperatures and method used when decarboxylating salicylates, I will post the URL if you want it); I guess we'll both just have to wait for Polverone on this, as I have some questions as well (like what should the decarboxylation take place under? Methanol? Ethanol? Some kind of ketone? And is a catalyst used, or is just simple thermal decarboxylation?) On a more positive note, I just have to mention, why would I buy aspirin and convert it to salicylic acid? Where I live, salicylic acid can be bought USP pure, OTC, and in powder form, almost as cheaply as aspirin :) Of course, you're right, for those who aren't in such a situation, aspirin is definitely the way to go.

[metafractal]

I'm super happy today, I just stumbled upon a goldmine! I just found that my local hardware store sells several useful chemicals, but the jewel of the find was phenol... not sold as any strange lotion or antying... just plain, pure phenol! And pretty cheap at that! They also had various semi-rare acids, but nothing to rave about (no nitric :( ). I fear that they may become suspicious if I purchase too much at one time... anyone from Melbourne, Australia feel free to email me- bloodsucker52@hotmail.com and we can exchange sources. But everyone around the world, do check your hardware stores again. You'd be surprised how common it is in an available, cheap form.
&gt;metafractal
Edit: undescriptive

<small>[ November 15, 2002, 06:22 AM: Message edited by: metafractal ]</small>

[zeocrash]

is the phenol sold as a store specific item, or is it under a brand name, if so what is it called
also the lotion was hopeless for filtering, the particles were far to small and most of them just passed through my filter. when i got the filter thick enough to stop most of them it was so thick it just absorbed most of the liquid.
i'm trying to order chemicals through my mates company though

<small>[ November 15, 2002, 10:35 AM: Message edited by: zeocrash ]</small>

[metafractal]

Oh yes... I remember that clearly, it is a store specific item. As I said i dont like to just spell things out... you know why. But if anyone is in the area... mmm...
(concise and vague all the way :D )
&gt;&gt;Metafractal