Acetone - The magic chemical

As a kid I used to hang around gas stations. One thing that amazed me was the usage of Coke to loosen tires from the rims. But it sure taste good anyway.
tommyco3. Acetone banned? Please note any store that sells paints. There are always cans, bottles, etc of Acetone there and in many different quantities. Even stores like Walmart, Kmart, Sears, Target and on and on if they carry paint, they have that horrible, dangerous, myserable stuff called Actone. And as already noted read the lable of almost any fingernail polish remover bottle. Contains Acetone. Of course the attitude of some of the women I know makes me wonder just how dangerous that stuff is on contact with thier bodies.

 

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Best look it up all over again. Water is H (OH) or Hydrogen Hydroxide. And the manufacturer of H2S04 is more complicated than that. S+O2= SO2 + O2= 2SO3 or Sulfur Trioxide and further mixing with H (OH) will eventually form H2S2O7 or fuming Sulfuric Acid which must be diluted to form H2SO4. And this is not the completed process but this is a coin forum. I go into it further in my chem classes.
GDJMSP: I hope you know I was kidding.
Doesn't everyone take Acetone baths? One question? How much does it cost to fill a bathtub with that?

 

Hydrogen Sulfate H2SO4 is actually strongly hydroscopic and nearly impossible to store

 

Yeah - I don't recommend that. Acetone is not classified as a carcinogen by the government under normal use and exposures but any chemist involved in toxicology or pharmacology will identify its structure and properties as a potential carcinogen right from the get go. Its not good for the liver either and skin absorption is pretty darn rapid because of both its votility and lipophilic nature.

OTOH paint is probably not healthy for you either, but acetone baths is not within the confines of normal use of acetone.

Ruben

 

Are you saying Doug is abnormal?

 

As a chemist, I never thought of acetone as a potential carcinogen and never will....because it is not. There's been thousands of studies done, acetone is generally well recongnized as safe when used properly. Also, acetone is very polar and barely lipophilic at all due to only 3 carbon atoms, in fact, it's about the least lipophilic organic solvent known.

 

then as a chemist you need to rethink it and this often happens when chemists come to the pharmacy industry. They forget they basic toxicology. Anything with an acetone group is a potential carcinogen and dangerous. As for acetone not being lipophilic, with all do respect, first that is not what I said. I said its lipophilic properties allow for passing through skin tissue. That is a 100% correct statement and I've had to knock down repeaed attempts by student chemists to use Acetone in drug delivery systems. A heavily lipophilic substance doesn't pass readily and a highly polar substance doesn't either. But a substance like Acetone and Alcohol gets very rapid systemic absorption through the skins lipoprotein cell membrane. And ALL organic solvents have to have about the same balance of Pk associativity and Lipophilic properties, roughly 2/3rds of water, or they don't dissolve the highly lipophilic organic material. And this is especially true of long chained polymers such as paint where the weak lipophilic bounds collectively form the free energy necessary for the adhesive properties of the surface to surface partition between the chemical and the substrate it is glued to.

So what do we want to do next? Should we take a mouse and put it in a acetone bath for a month and see if it develops legions, when the mouse doesn't die of liver poisoning first? Because the Pharmacy industry has done that already and that is exactly the result.

Ruben

 

Meanwhile back to how Acetone effects coins. I had a post about polished coins not long ago. One of my test coins is a Buffalo Nickel. Nothing apparently takes the polish of this coin so back in the Acetone in a jar in the Sun it went yesterday. Now there for at least 24 hours. Absolutely nothing is happening. Just for an experiment I think I'll leave it there for several weeks.
I do find it does clean out the underneath part of your fingernails.
And GDJMSP may have something there with the Acetone bath. There is this guy that wanders around my neighborhood that could use that.

 

Now that leaves out way to many details. It is important to know if the mouse was dead, alive, male, old, playfull, dirty and it may have been one of those rubber ones from Walmart's pet department.
I'm trying to figure out what any of this has to do with coins. Did I miss something somewhere?
Oh possibly that mouse ate a Copper coin with green stuff on it. :goofer:

 

Well, it started out with a discussion as to if acetone was an acid, and it is a Lewis Base but then our fearless moderator volunteered that he takes acetone baths....

Ruben

 

I'm not going to rethink anything, acetone is not a carcinogen, end of story. LOL If you immerse, inject, or orally dose just about ANY chemical at high enough levels, there will be adverse effects. I've read enough poorly done studies "proving" that perfectly safe chemicals cause a multitude of problems, easy enough to do with extreme, excessive and completely unrealistic exposure levels. Living organisms can only tolerate such treatment for so long before problems develop, heck, I can "poison" you with water.

I agree, acetone and nearly all organic solvents can definately be absorbed through the skin, that's scientific fact. However, at minor exposure levels, the body can easily tolerate them with no adverse effects. So happens I know a little about this, I did spend 10 years in pharmaceutical R&D.

 

But what you may not know is that he was holding a bunch of coins that had all kinds of iky, gooy stuff on them at the time.
Also, I thought he clarified that all by saying not a complete bathtub but just pails or something. Try imagining an entire bathtub full of Acetone and finding out it aborbs the bathtub liner.

 

It is the end of the story but your not right and I'll stake my PhD on it.

Ruben

 

Uhh - if your in Pharmacy R&D you understand what an accelerated study is and if your following this thread we are talking about BATHING in acetone.

Ruben

 

Were actually arguing the same point at this juncture. Maybe I'm in a bad mood. Under normal use Acetone is non-carcinogenic. Don't bath in it.

Ruben

 

Interesting remarks made in this thread.
Being in New Drug Development myself, I have to agree with what you both have said to a certain extent!
The point that both of you "might" be missing is Doug's literal sense of using the "term bathing in it" as a figurative context.
My impression of what he is saying is that he has soaked cloths with the solvent and wiped down with it. Thats does not mean he has fill a reservoir with it and soaked it it by candle light! (Whoops bad term there, due to it's volatile fumes)......he simply wipes down with it to remove paint splatter...

No need to get in a tussy over what it can do..if and when you saturate your self in it! Come on guys...simply pull the MSDS Sheets and read the exposure warnings.

Cheers and regards to you both!!


RickieB

 

Yeah bad idea to have acetone near a candle lol

 

No worries, no offense taken, I was just stating a point.... I wasn't trying to be combative, sorry if it came across that way. Bathing in acetone would certainly result in death. LOL

I'm no longer in pharmaceutical research, gave that up 11 years ago for metalworking fluids, I hated dealing with the FDA! :headbang:

 

Man, I'd like to see some proof posted to see the magic that acetone's been working for someone. Acetone hasn't done a damn thing for me. I've tried it a couple times on some coins. It doesn't make anything shiny again. I can't even get a coin to be dull gray again.

If the coin's got to be like new and shiny to begin with, but has a little dirt on it, I'll just use water. As for trying to clean up black, almost unrecognizable coins, I'll never waste my time with acetone again.