70% Walgreens Ethanol...lab friendly?

[Elite Engineer]

I know antiseptic ethanol from Walgreens and other pharmacies is only 70% and has various additives to make it undrinkable. However is it ok use this ethanol in lab experiments. I've been distilling my own ethanol now for the past few months, and frankly I'm tired of it.

 

~Thanks,

 

EE

[swansont]

It depends on the experiment.

[Enthalpy]

I'm not quite sure pharmacy alcohol is made undrinkable. It's just a matter of cost: pharmacies sell it too expensive to compete against taxes on drinkable alcohol, so there's no need for tax collectors to taint it. An other reason is that being used on the skin, pharmacy alcohol should better contain no poison - and methanol is a poison, I mean, worse than ethanol.

[Elite Engineer]

It depends on the experiment.

-fischer esterification

[John Cuthber]

Pharmaceutical alcohol can contain quite a lot of other stuff and it does contain denaturing agents to stop you drinking it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubbing_alcohol

I don't know what's in the Wallgreens' stuff, but it might be a good place to start distilling.

You might get more alcohol, and less "tired of" distilling" it.

If this

http://www.walgreens.com/store/c/walgreens-ethyl-rubbing-alcohol-70-first-aid-antiseptic/ID=prod6056575-product

is the stuff you mean, it lists the inactive ingredients as

Acetone , Denatonium Benzoate , Methyl Isobutyl Ketone , Water

I'm guessing those are alphabetical rather than largest %age first.

 

The question of how good it needs to be depends on the details of the proposed experiment but two things would be bad for an esterification

Water and

other alcohols.

So you would still need to clean up that product.

[Elite Engineer]

Pharmaceutical alcohol can contain quite a lot of other stuff and it does contain denaturing agents to stop you drinking it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubbing_alcohol

I don't know what's in the Wallgreens' stuff, but it might be a good place to start distilling.

You might get more alcohol, and less "tired of" distilling" it.

If this

http://www.walgreens.com/store/c/walgreens-ethyl-rubbing-alcohol-70-first-aid-antiseptic/ID=prod6056575-product

is the stuff you mean, it lists the inactive ingredients as

Acetone , Denatonium Benzoate , Methyl Isobutyl Ketone , Water

I'm guessing those are alphabetical rather than largest %age first.

 

The question of how good it needs to be depends on the details of the proposed experiment but two things would be bad for an esterification

Water and

other alcohols.

So you would still need to clean up that product.

Thanks!

[swansont]

I'm not quite sure pharmacy alcohol is made undrinkable. It's just a matter of cost: pharmacies sell it too expensive to compete against taxes on drinkable alcohol, so there's no need for tax collectors to taint it. An other reason is that being used on the skin, pharmacy alcohol should better contain no poison - and methanol is a poison, I mean, worse than ethanol.

 

Denaturing non-beverage (and thus differently-taxed) alcohols dates to 1906 in the US. "Undrinkable" is probably not the right word, since you can still drink it, even though its poisonous. I don't think the cost of the product is a factor in whether the government wishes to tax it.

[chemicalman]

How do we know if that chemical is proper to our body? i think thats the point. So you could try to understand what measures that stands in that chemical firstly.