Has anyone in Australia purchased a solvent from an industrial chemistry lab?

[reun]

Hi all,

I'm new here and I'm having a lot of trouble finding a clean non-polar solvent. I'm based in Australia, and regular naphtha brands (called "shellite" here) are failing the evaporation test. One yet unexplored avenue for me to look into is buying n-heptane from an industrial chemistry lab. Most of these do not sell to residential addresses; they require a business registration number to make such purchases, but some shady ones seem to sell these products to retail consumers. That said, I'm worried about going down this track. First, the transaction would look highly suspicious and I'm not sure whether this suspicion would culminate in anything. Second, it's a dangerous good that I'd be buying and I'm concerned about the delivery itself being a rather dramatic process somehow. However, perhaps I'm overthinking all this. If anyone from Australia has bought n-heptane or other chemical products from an undustrial chemist to a residential address, I'd love to hear from you.

Many thanks!

 

[blig-blug]

Is it illegal to buy heptane in Australia? If it's not, I wouldn't assume that the ones selling to consumers are shady. Heptane has many more uses than extracting DMT. I usually get it from retail lab supply stores (in Spain, so different laws) without issues. And, as I mentioned elsewhere, the delivery is always in a normal box, using a normal courier, in a normal truck. It could be different there, but I wouldn't assume it is.

 

[reun]

Is it illegal to buy heptane in Australia? If it's not, I wouldn't assume that the ones selling to consumers are shady. Heptane has many more uses than extracting DMT. I usually get it from retail lab supply stores (in Spain, so different laws) without issues. And, as I mentioned elsewhere, the delivery is always in a normal box, using a normal courier, in a normal truck. It could be different there, but I wouldn't assume it is.

Technically, heptane is legal in Australia, but as I noted in my original post, two factors concern me:

• Logistics: I'm not sure what's involved in delivering dangerous goods like heptane, but I feel that such order may raise questions
• Scrutiny: if this order does raise questions, I feel like it would be very difficult to explain why I'm buying this

But yes, there are some retailers offering heptane, for example Lab Supply and Pure Science.

When I posted this thread, my hope was to get clarity on the two problems I mentioned above: logistics and scrutiny. I wanted to understand if others have dealt with this and what was their experience like.

 

[TheGreenPhantom]

As far as scrutiny goes: you're using heptane to remove the adhesive on stamps you are collecting, as well as dissolve some stubborn rubber cement stuck on... whatever it's stuck on. There's a huge mess of it 'cuz some kid got rubber cement all over your rec room, so you need a liter of heptane.

Logistics: if you're not dealing with customs, it's like receiving any other package.

 

[Animistic]

I've had a friend purchase solvents like heptane online, no issue and based in Aus. He may have had it delivered to a work address in a semi relevant industry but I'm pretty sure he had it delivered to his house.

 

[reun]

Thank you all! Alright, I feel more at ease about the idea of finally dealing with that rubber cement

That said, I'm currently exploring an artisan solvent that may do the trick, so I hope I won't have to go down the heptane route, but I do, then I will update this post!

 

[TheGreenPhantom]

I'm currently exploring an artisan solvent...

Please, do tell more!

 

[reun]

Please, do tell more!

This is the one I just ordered: Sceneys Quality Shellite. I should get it in a few days and I will report back with my evap test results!

 

[_Trip_]

You can have lab grade heptane delivered from sellers on ebay in Aus.

You'll still likely get goo with it though if using acacia, depending on your process.

 

[reun]

You can have lab grade heptane delivered from sellers on ebay in Aus.

You'll still likely get goo with it though if using acacia, depending on your process.

It appears as though you can indeed buy heptane via eBay, but it would have to arrive from overseas, and I'd really prefer not to do that with dangerous chemicals. As noted earlier, there are some chemistry labs catering for the retail sector locally, it's just that I'm still not sure whether doing business with these organisations may lead to complications. I'm exploring other alternatives for now.

I'm working with a finely powdered MHRB, so hopefully I will not be dealing with goo!

 

[reun]

Alright, I have an update on the solvent situation: as I noted earlier, I ordered Sceneys Quality Shellite and it passed the evap test! The difference between Sceneys and the other two I tried is noticeable immediately. Sceneys evaporates almost instantly, whereas the others took a few minutes to disappear. Sceneys left absolutely zero residue afterwards as well, which is the most important part.

 

[_Trip_]

You can freeze precipitate impurities out of the shellite and do an acid and sodium csrb wash before use. Preferably a mag sulph dry aswell.

 

[MrAcuminata]

You can freeze precipitate impurities out of the shellite and do an acid and sodium csrb wash before use. Preferably a mag sulph dry aswell.

I've read about "drying" the solvent using mag-sulph and I've also read about a suggestion to use molecular sieves to draw out water impurities, no idea if that's actually effective tho. Was wondering if a simple brine wash of the shellite followed by a distilled water wash to remove the salt before use would make any difference? I was going to test it myself next time but if that won't really help I'll save myself the effort. It would be a much simpler fix than proper distillation. The freeze precip and acid/sodium carb wash sounds easy enough though, would vinegar work as an acid? Might experiment with all of these and come up with an Aussie Shellite Cleanup Tek lol

 

[_Trip_]

Don't know quite if a tek needs to be written up. But a simple post on this thread, detailing the process could help and is good harm reduction.

You might be surprised with the impurities that drop out in a freeze precipitate.

 

[Transform]

Was wondering if a simple brine wash of the shellite followed by a distilled water wash to remove the salt before use would make any difference?

Typically it works the other way round - brine removes water contamination. You shouldn't get any salt going into naphtha if you haven't shaken it so hard that it's turned into scary mayonnaise…

It would be a much simpler fix than proper distillation.

But… but… distillation's my idea of a proper fun evening! The more so if a nice (Vigreux) column's involved Don't cheat yourself

 

[MrAcuminata]

Typically it works the other way round - brine removes water contamination. You shouldn't get any salt going into naphtha if you haven't shaken it so hard that it's turned into scary mayonnaise…

But… but… distillation's my idea of a proper fun evening! The more so if a nice (Vigreux) column's involved Don't cheat yourself

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely intend to invest in the equipment and education required for the fun evenings aforementioned, hopefully in the near future, but sadly at the moment I lack the finance to invest, and more importantly lack the education to part take in these activities safely. For now a cheaper way to achieve a safe product is what I have to settle for. That said, since beginning my research of extraction of the beloved molecule at the start of this year, having no real background in the sciences, my interest in chemistry as a whole has been increasing daily, and it's people such as yourself responding to questions and encouraging others that are further helping me discover a possible passion i never knew i had. I much appreciate it.

 

[Transform]

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely intend to invest in the equipment and education required for the fun evenings aforementioned, hopefully in the near future, but sadly at the moment I lack the finance to invest, and more importantly lack the education to part take in these activities safely. For now a cheaper way to achieve a safe product is what I have to settle for. That said, since beginning my research of extraction of the beloved molecule at the start of this year, having no real background in the sciences, my interest in chemistry as a whole has been increasing daily, and it's people such as yourself responding to questions and encouraging others that are further helping me discover a possible passion i never knew i had. I much appreciate it.

That's the kind of attitude I love to see. Putting safety foremost when distilling flammable substances is of course paramount, but so is finding that balance between necessary respect and needless fear. All in all, that's a well measured assessment of your situation that you're making.

I hope that it's still possible for you to obtain lab equipment without the hassle that you've had over solvents. Perhaps you can find some good deals on some kind of auction website. I was lucky enough to pick up some good job lots over a decade ago, things were perhaps a bit different back then!

Best of luck, and let me know if you'll contemplate building a distillation set up out of copper pipe - although, given copper prices, I don't know if you'd be at any advantage over saving up for the glassware.