milky frothy xylene

[biotechdude]

Swix found a 1L 'brush restorer' can and on the front it read contents - xylene 890g/L.  He thought this was good.

However, when mixed with water or fb eph (during a trial), the whole solution turned milky white and slightly frothy.  Could not see any separation.  Swix assumes this may be an additive used to 'restore brushes'.  The msds was inconclusive, and contained no info on ingredients; only xylene.

Swix wants to use this solvent for eph/meth a/b's.  He cannot obtain toluene; but has turps, white spirits, light naptha (but dont want to use as needs to be warm; and not vm&p).  Swix thinks his xylene is unsuitable; and thinks white spirits (home dry cleaning fluid) will bee the stress free np solvent option.

Any ideas?

[geezmeister]

Advice: Go to the local hardware or home improvement store and buy a gallon of xylene. Toss the stuff you found in the shed unless you want to distill it. If you can't get xylene locally, hit the paint stores for toly.

[biotechdude]

Cheers Geez, but in Oz; it's not a simple walk in affair.  Swix has been to heaps of big and small hardware AND paint stores to locate both xylene and toluene.  So far, only mixes of hydrocarbons (inc xyl and tol), dichloromethane, or turps dominate the shelves. 

I'm saying this as Swix is not a chem newbee who doesn't know where to buy such solvents.  As this milky xylene is wack (and doesn't wish to distill), Swix will go further up the chain to petrochem wholesales.  Or bother his chem suppliers (but would prefer otc souce for obvious reasons).

Would white spirits (or another NP) bee ok for JUST meth fb work.  Or is xylene and toluene prefered for more than just their pill-gaak fighting abilities?

[SHORTY]

I have used naptha from zippo lighter fluid, n-hexane, chloroform, toluene and xylene and cyclohexane for a/bing meth.  However, i prefer toluene mainly because its cheaper and easier for me to get than the others with the exception of xylene.  I use xylene for pill cleaning procedures.  If i use xylene in the final workup i tend to get a slight bit of oilyness upon evap of the hcl meth.  This probably has to do with not allowing the layers sufficient time to seperate but im not sure.  Toluene will evap much faster than xylene and this is probably the reason for no oilyness when toluene is used.  Also when using chloroform the bottom layer is the chloroform not the top as with others.

[biotechdude]

After many visits to the paint and hardware stores, Swix has finally found pure xylene...(for my 2-pac respray business of course  

The old clerk was helpful and pointed out a few things

- In oz, retailers very rarely stock the item on shelves as sales for the product are low.  Furthermore, the majority of their business is from the baby-boomer DIY's; who are more inclined to get turps etc.  Additionally, many retailers don't order it because its a pain in the ass for dangerous goods shipping costs etc. 

- In oz, you are more likely to get it from trade-orientated paint retailers as they will also sell to automotive and aviation industries.

- The clerk informed Swix that he uses it out back for cleaning and surface prep and orders it in 20L drums (now available to Swix for less than $90 AUD otc).  Explain to the clerk that you need it as xylene, and toluene; are both useful for non-porous surface prep as they evap quickly and don't leave a residue (unlike turps and commercial thinner preps)

In summary, xylene is not a simple otc aquisition in Oz.  However, going to trade-orientated retailers and asking the clerk 'if he has any out back' will prove more fruitful than searching the shelves silently in the big chain stores.

However, the clerk didn't have toluene; but Swix is unsure if it's worth the search...although Shorty's comments re meth-hcl oilyness with xylene worries him.  I assume the oilyness is removed with acetone and recystalisation.  Is aquiring toluene as well worth it?...

[SHORTY]

As that is only my experience with xylene and i have never seen any other bees discussing the same problem. Im pretty sure that geez uses xylene so it must bee just me and my technique.  If touluene is much harder to get or more expensive then i wouldn't bother trying to get it.  I get most of my chems from a store that sells to mostly high schools and universities so its only a matter of grabbing a bottle a few rows and therefore it is not more difficult to get either one.  Toluene is about 30% more expensive though.

[morpheus]

It is also sold as Toluol.This is my opinion only and that
is: For the HI reduction of E or Psudo, toluene makes
the best non-polar for this synthesis.Its smell is about
its only bad point.IMHO boiling xylene does a better job cleaning pm and will work great as NP.
It just seems when using toluene on an a/b swim hardly gets anything on second pull,while with xylene or hot naptha
sometimes a third pull is done to bee sure all amines
are now safely in their free base form,ready for washes and
whatever swim has in mind(usually titrating hcl).
Don't know if the number of pulls required indicates the
effectiveness of non-polar and would love to hear some feed
back from some of our gifted bees.

[Ganzas2003]

...uses xylene now...well not pure i think...its from a can which only states xilene and this is used for pool paint thinning...its effective on pill cleaning.
Swig is using this xylene as NP in the a/b too...well SWIG allways do: 3 "water pulls" from the reaction vessel and for every of these, he does 3 final pulls.ahahaha...well i just cannot think about losing any bit. OF COURSE SWIG IS A FUKIN NOOB AND ONLY DID 1-2G NANOS SO PLEASE dont get on SWIG as SWIG was only expressing he's thoughts...

PEACE!