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Heptane, where are you?!!!

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DoingKermit

DoingKermit

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I managed to find something that contained mainly heptane in a random hardware store in london (before Christmas). I never bought it and they don't have it in stock anymore and won't be. I have asked this before, but am just praying someone out there might know a place to get it... a shop preferably, in London. I don't mind using rosonol, even for rxslzing... i just want those pretty clear shards!!! Can anyone help? I have looked EVERYWHERE with no luck.

Thanks in advance, space cadets! Peas
 
you can get that by slowing down a re-x with ronosol.

I can't find heptane for the life of me, but I find if you after dissolving the spice for the re-x you have the solvent slow down as slow as possible by keep topping up the warm water baths with progressively smaller increments of hot water you can slow down the cooling process. then once it's reached room temperature and the clouding has cleared move it somewhere a little colder like by the window, then open the window each time wait for it to cloud and clear. By picking progessively cooler conditions you can get some pretty damn good results. A digital thermometer helps amazingly.

It sounds sketchy I know, but it does work.
 
Bestine is the most common brand name. It's rubber cement thinner, and is sold online and also at many art supply stores.

Pokey
 
Oh, sorry. I figured whatever I found online could ship anywhere. I wonder what artists in the UK use to thin their rubber cement? Maybe there is a European company that sells it. I'll look around!

Pokey
 
You can get heptane from Homebase in the UK - look for Evo stick adhesive cleaner - it's actually a mixture of acetone, ethyl acetate, naptha and heptane (according to the PDF from bostiks website - I uploaded it with this post if you want a look).

It's exact make up is as follows (with what info I have on using it in spice extraction).

10-30%Acetone is miscible in water, and is a polar aprotic solvent - which means it will likely disappear into the basified goo, as it is miscible in water. As an aprotic solvent it doesn't have an acidic hydrogen like ethanol etc do, so it shouldn't react with anything - there is a thread here on the subject of acetone in extractions if you're interested.

10-30% Cyclohexane which is very similar in action to hexane.

1-5% Cyclopentane again similar in action to hexane (but much more volatile).

10-30% Ethyl acetate may react with the NaOH to form sodium acetate and ethanol (not 100% sure about this, but thats what I think would happen). The ethanol would then disappear into the solution, as would the sodium acetate, as both are water soluble - not sure whether any ethanol created would cause any problems).

The rest is a mix of Heptane & isomers (10-30%), Hexane isomers (5-10%), Hexane (1-5%), Methylcyclohexane (1-5%), n-Hexane (<1%) and Pentane (<1%)


You could (if you are worried about using such a mix) fraction out the heptane - it's fraction would be near the end though, as it's boiling point is 98.42C - Cyclopentane would be 1st (49C), Acetone 2nd (56.3C), Hexane 3rd (69C), Ethyl Acetate 4th (77.1CF), Cyclohexane 5th (80.74C), then Heptane 6th (98.42C), with Methcyclohexane 7th (101C), but I doubt that much trouble is necessary.


The label says Cyclohexane, Heptane and isomers (which is why I originally thought it was mostly Heptane along with a little cyclohexane). The pipe said he will be trying it soon out using an STB method and freeze precip, so I will post again with some more info when he tells me what happened 8) ....
 

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Or if you want to get hold of Bestine in the UK, there is a place in Manchester that sells it:

Artstat Creative House
Tilson Road
Roundthorn Industrial Estate
Manchester, UK M23 9WR

Telephone number is (0161) 902 3800, and the stuff you're looking for is Bestine solvent and thinner (which is 100% heptane according to the MSDS)...8)
 
Gir said:
Hey that is GREAT INFO FOR A NEW PERSON!!!!

WOW!!! SUPER IMPRESSED HERE!

awesome noname!!!
Click to expand...

Cheers man :d


Got together with The pipe today, and got the lowdown on the story so far for using the Evo stick stuff - heres what he said:

Did a simple STB using 250g powdered MHRB, and basifying it with 200g NaOH in 2L water (giving a solution with pH of 14). The pipe decided to do the first pull using something he's got experience of having used before so he could get a basic comparison, so he used 250ml Ronsonol naptha, which was added and then gently agitated for about 20mins. The mix was left to separate for 10 mins, and then drawn off using a syringe into another container which he then put in the freezer.

He then checked the pH of the MHRB/lye solution was still 14 (which it was, so he didn't need to adjust it), and added 250ml of Evo stick adhesive cleaner. The pipe informs me he noticed immediately that this solvent was more volatile than the last, but following the same method as for the Ronsonol resulted in an equivalent quantity of the solvent drawn off (leading The pipe to believe that the solvent mix contained relatively low levels of miscible/reactive substances). The resulting solvent was quite a strong yellow colour though where the Ronsonol was more cloudy white leading The pipe to think the second solvent extracted other alkaloids along with the spice.


Both were left for 3 hours in the freezer, and then the resulting precipitate was filtered out and dried. The first lot was a nice clean nearly white crystalline solid which The pipe says is quite pure spice, and was 1.40g in weight. The second lot was a much more yellow crystalline solid which The pipe says is also spice, but not as pure as the first batch, and was 0.91g in weight. The pipe was quite pleased with having 2.31g total from 2 pulls though, and thinks there will likely be a fair bit more in the next few he plans to do - as for the yellow colouring to the results, The pipe says he may consider washing to extract the pure spice (using Ronsonol, or Bestine if he can get it), and reduxing the residue that is left with zinc and acid to see if it is N-oxide, or something else.

I will pass on anything else he finds out from these experiments when he has done them though 8) .


The verdict so far was that the Evo stick can be used for extracting, but it isn't a clean way to do it - while it may contain heptane, the other ingredients mean it would need to be fractioned out to be as useful as something like Bestine (which contains 100% heptane).


Hope thats useful to some of you's though 😉 8)
 
Great stuff, NoName! Thanks for that info. I am going to buy some of the Primus Powerfuel i told you about, which is supposed to be 100% pure heptane. I will post results after i do the extraction. Thanks again!

DK
 
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