Well, that's what I was wondering actually... The MSDS says >30% GBL, which means *no less* than 30%. <20% of the other substances means at most 20% crap. The rest must be GBL with or without water.
A gut feeling says that if 50% of the mixture was water, then it would be an ineffective solvent for taking care of grafiti and such, which the tradename of the product indicates that it's for.
I'm aware that GBL is soluble in DCM - let me clarify my original question.
Do you people think the method I describe below would be a functional method for isolating GBL from the above mentioned solution?
Treat (reflux) the mixture with enough ~10% MOH1 solution to make the pH=7-8, do a couple of DCM washes to get rid of the D-lemonene and fattyalcoholethoxylate2, distill off the volatiles to get a mixture of M-GHB and MOH. Acidify with e.g. 10% H2SO4 till pH=<2-3 and then extract the formed GBL with DCM, evaporate and distill the GBL at atmospheric pressure.
1M = alkali
2IIRC GBL is easily hydrolyzed by OH-, easier than many other esters. Is it correct to assum that the GBL will be completely hydrolyzed before any of the fattyalcoholethoxylate gets hydrolyzed as well?
Thanks!