Another polar solvent?

[DNRN]

First of all a big hello and hi to you all Okay I haven't tried any of the teks jet.. But I have tried the acid/base extraction a couple of times in chemistry, so okay here's my question: Wouln't it be possible to get a higher yeld if one used polar solvents like Toluen (methylbenzen) and Xylen (para/ortho/meta-dimethylbenzen)? And it's possible to get these chemicals (in all EU I think) because they are used as thinner, and can be bought in a paintshop. But sometimes have to be destilled. Okay and a quickie VM&P Naphta is a composition of medium length carbonhydrids (CHx-CHx-CHx-CHx-) where x is 1,2 or 3 and - is single, double or trible bonds? We do not have VM&P Napta so I'm trying to find the danish equivalent... And great forum you have

 

[Noman]

Hi, and welcome. Toluene and xylene aren't commonly used because they pull [b:68b5f983cc]everything[/b:68b5f983cc] and need to be evaped rather than freeze precipitated and are horribly nasty to work with without a hood. That said, your post makes me want to browbeat my friend in Antarctica to do an extraction with toluene and separate off the DMT with heptane and see what he gets.

 

[knark]

Hej dansken! Like noman said, xylene and toluene pull too much crap. Great for defatting though. And they are non-polar by the way.. Anyhow. What you look for is Heptane/ Kemiskt ren bensin. I dunno how it works in Denmark, but here in Sweden you find it in hardware shops. The purity is very high, at least here.

 

[DNRN]

Ahh damn ofcause it's non-polar!! (one argument is symmetry in the electron density) Just me who was a bit hurry ... Thanks for the naphta info, I think we call it "rense benzin" in dansh. But I've worked with xylen before in the lab, and a fellow student (a organic chmistry dude) told me that the best solvent to extractions are those wich are most alike. Which for xylen and DMT means that the indole from DMT and the benzen ring from xylen can make pi-stacks and thereby solute DMT... Hehe and thereby it's easy to tell why it's so good at defatting because fats are "long" -C-C-C- chains with hydrogen and can't pi-stack (have no pi-orbitals ) with Xylen.. But now I work most with solid state NMR, so this aint my strong side so please say if I have made any mistakes. Anyway I think I'll stick to the "rense benzin" in my first extraction..