Best way of making anhydrous acetone?

[mithyl2]

i tried using calcium sulfate as per a video i saw on youtube by stirring it with the acetone for 12 hours, then distilling the acetone, but i'm not sure it worked.

can anyone advise?

 

[testint]

epsom salt (magnesium sulfate) cook in an oven at 400f for a few hours

 

[mithyl2]

that simple? great.

i was under the impression that acetone had some specific properties which required a different drying agent.

 

[testint]

There is for long term storage but as long as it's pure and you have cooked it complete dry in the oven I have always used this instead of molecular sieves

 

[mithyl2]

how long do you think dried acetone will stay dry if it's in a sealed bottle?

 

[testint]

Depending of how many times its opened and used. I use any anhydrous solvent right away anything about storage would be guesswork on my part .

 

[Osmosis Vanderwaal]

3a molecular sieve is better in my opinion. It doesn't need filtered off , doesn't leave crap in your acetone. It's reusable and can dry acetone down to 10s of ppm. It works in freezing Temps and it can dehydrate silica, itself being a drying agent. It is inert to everything, magnesium sulphate reacts with somethings and drying it sucks. If you don't breAK it down every 20 minutes, it turns to stone so hard you can't break it with a hammer

 

[testint]

absolutely correct although when I was sketched out back in the day I only used what was easiest to get and was cheap ,now is a different story
And ya you should run the stirrer with magnesium

 

[mithyl2]

what's the best way to dry the 3a molecular sieve to use it again?

 

[Osmosis Vanderwaal]

Put it in the oven on a cookie sheet at 400°for for a couple hours ( higher if you dare, but your oven will smoke you out)

 

[mithyl2]

will 300C or 350C for a bit longer suffice?

 

[Osmosis Vanderwaal]

That's hotter than the Temps I said. 300°C is 572°f. There is a temperature that's too hot, but I don't remember what it was, hotter than I felt my oven should go. There isn't any actual "activation " that is a chemical process, activation just means drying it. My best advice is follow the manufacturers instructions

 

[mithyl2]

i assumed you meant celcius.

thanks for the advice. i completely agree with you about the ease of using sieves instead of magnesium.

 

[Osmosis Vanderwaal]

Yeah, us Americans cling to our nonsense imperial measurement system where water freezes at 32° and boils at 212°, and there's 12 inches in a foot and 5280 feet in a mile. We do most of our measuring in amounts like 1/16(0.06125) and 1/32 and 1/64... I mean why would you divide something into 64 parts ? Drugs come in 1/8ths and 1/4s of an ounce, which is 28.3 grams, so here's your 3.5 grams, I know technically it should be 3.5375g, but us Americans can't math that good