I won't disclose the source from which I found this item, but if you have half a brain you should be able to figure it out without any trouble. While I was at the auto parts store last month I stumbled upon their paint section and noticed a gallon container of what appeared to be paint thinner/remover for aircrafts. According to the label on the container, the components of the solvent were "Methylene Chloride" and "Methanol". I was expecting to find "Petroleum Distillates" as an element of the solvent as well since many OTC solvents contain it, but there was no indication of it, so perhaps there is none.
Since these components are very useful in their isolated form, the last thing that remains is how to isolate them from the solvent mixture. Extraction via distillation might be tricky since methanol boils at 64.5°C and methylene chloride boils at 40°C, so perhaps a fractional distillation would be required.
Can these components be extracted by taking advantage of water solubility? Methanol is completely soluble in water while DCM is partially soluble in water at the rate of 20g/L (approximately 15ml DCM/L water). In this case, you would end up with 2 distillations to perform since you must remove the water in methanol and the small amount of water in DCM.
I am led to believe that fractional distillation would be the better option since it seems like less work, but what the hell do I know
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