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Another NEWP, and medal/exonumia guru advice (conservation question)
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<p>[QUOTE="The Eidolon, post: 3604627, member: 102103"]Xylene is a nonpolar organic solvent and acetone is a highly polar organic solvent. They are both very good solvents, but in general, like dissolves like. Polar solvents more easily dissolve polar contaminants, like most salts and oxides. Neither should be very reactive with copper metal itself, but I would guess acetone would be more likely to react with some corrosion products or contaminants. Xylene is pretty unreactive. (Both are flammable.) My guess is you are not looking for the fastest or most powerful solvent, but one which can do the job with the least interaction with the rest of the coin and its natural oxide coating.</p><p><br /></p><p>Disclosure: I used to be a chemist, but only used xylene etc. for surface science research, and haven't tried using it to clean coins.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>
[QUOTE="The Eidolon, post: 3604627, member: 102103"]Xylene is a nonpolar organic solvent and acetone is a highly polar organic solvent. They are both very good solvents, but in general, like dissolves like. Polar solvents more easily dissolve polar contaminants, like most salts and oxides. Neither should be very reactive with copper metal itself, but I would guess acetone would be more likely to react with some corrosion products or contaminants. Xylene is pretty unreactive. (Both are flammable.) My guess is you are not looking for the fastest or most powerful solvent, but one which can do the job with the least interaction with the rest of the coin and its natural oxide coating. Disclosure: I used to be a chemist, but only used xylene etc. for surface science research, and haven't tried using it to clean coins.[/QUOTE]
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Another NEWP, and medal/exonumia guru advice (conservation question)
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