Solvents are often distinguished from water-based products. But AIUI chemically speaking water is a solvent.
So how are they distinguished in DIY terms? What do tool manuals mean when they refer to "solvents"?
You're right, but in a lot of popular usage "solvents" means organic solvents, typically non-polar solvents like petrol, white spirit, and (in the old days) benzene, or polar solvents like acetone and the three common alcohols (methanol, ethanol, propanol).
The former separate if mixed with water, the latter are miscible.
"Organic" means containing carbon (excludes simple compounds like carbonates) and generally associated with or derived from biological compounds.
I think hydrocarbons is the more useful term, and that extends to hydrocarbons from non organic sources.
Things get complex at the grey areas like hydrogen cyanide.
Doesn?t cover the alcohols.
And there are quite a few solvents that arent hydrocarbons.
in modern "Green" parlance "Organic" means "natural" - so if you are really into organic things you chew a piece of willow bark instead of taking an aspirin
In the context of cleaning tools they generally mean something that will dissolve old mucky grease and black oily residues off things.
And these days isn't too toxic (methanol, CCl4), too flammable (ether), too carcinogenic or inclined to wreck the ozone layer. Some of the latter were fabulous and very inert solvents and hard to replace.
Yes, and f*ck to them, is what I say.
I don't disagree
You forgot aqua regia. Or the mythical "universal solvent". (What shall we keep it in?)
No I didn't. When did you see a *tool manual* suggesting aqua regia as a solvent?
Not quite.
"Organic(TM)" these days means grown without synthetic fertilisers and pesticides then over packaged and over priced in supermarkets. It is a splendid way to rip off the worried well who want "chemical free" food and are prepared to pay a big premium for an Organic(TM) logo.
"Organic" peanut butter is the canonical nasty where due to the fungi that live on peanuts any threat from the usual chemical preservative is negligible when compared to the entirely natural fungal aflatoxins produced by Aspergillus fungi. Home made herbs in oil is another one where naturally occurring botulinum does for a few folk each year.
Somebody mentioned the book Ignition here a while back. In it he discusses the joys of storing Nitric acid, specifically the pure red fuming variety, which is used as an oxidiser in some rockets.
It eats lots of things, so is hard to store. To stop it they discovered that putting a bit of hydroflouric acid (5% IIRC) in did the job - the flouride passivates the steel and stops the lot dissolving.
Not a tank I'd like to be anywhere near (also the output from the relevant rocket...)
Apologies to anyone whose seen this before, but this is well worth a read;
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.