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Science Memes @mander.xyz

fossilesque @lemmy.dbzer0.com

2w ago

OC

Acetone: A Thread

I'm dying chat.

Credit: An anonymous labrat friend. Thank you.

55 comments

You know, I used to do this as a teenager, when cleaning my bearings with acetone, and I recall my family needing to get the sink repaired due to leakages getting quite severe at times.
Only through this post have I come to realise, 20 years later, that I was most likely at fault for the issue.
I mean I'm still not going to admit it to anyone, but it's good to know and stuff.
- I had a bong as a freshman. I cleaned it with acetone. I then had several tubes instead.
  
  Never understood why folks used acrylic bongs, like, how do you clean it? I kinda figured they were meant as disposable party bongs.
- At least you know why your sinks continue to melt now
- Except admitting it to 50,000 lemmy users, haha. No worries, I didn't know acetone ruins pvc until this post either.
- Your secret is safe with us Jaden

Context: acetone will dissolve ABS plastic. Drain pipes can be made out of ABS.
- The pipes are usually made of PVC. Several other components are still often made of ABS.
- In my experience, household drain pipes are usually made out of PVC.
  
  True. I corrected the statement.

That's just the natural aging process. Plumbing just gets saggy and wrinkly. Ask any man over 50.

Y'all have a sink in your fume hood? We just had waste bottles.
- Cup sinks in fume hoods used to be more common, but as a lab planner they are pretty rare requests nowadays. If I had to guess, it's probably to do with the move away from central acid-waste neutralization systems towards procedural controls dictating neutralization/dilution prior to disposal.
  
  Wait, industry is moving away from central neutralization? My wife is the facilities manager for an R1 engineering department and they commissioned a building two years ago with a central acid collection tank -_-
  
  A lab planner! That's one of those cool (sounding at least) jobs that are obvious when you think about it but I've just never thought about it.
  Definitely piqued my curiosity though. How much of your work is designing new labs vs retrofitting existing ones, how much travel is involved / how much area do you cover (the question there is really about how many labs exist needing such services), and what are any weird or surprising elements of your job?!
- A lot of ours has sinks, this wasn't at mine though. :)

I spent a bunch of time in art classes and learned more practical chemical safety and disposal than my actual chemistry classes.

Best way to get rid of acetone is what my boss made me and a co-worker do once:
Toss it onto some metal plates that had been left in 110 degree weather. They were also painted black.
Did you know that's enough for acetone to flash-light? We didn't until that moment, then we had fun
- Let's hope for all your wellbeing that it was fun and not !FUN!

sounds like they need to acetone for their sins

This is so irresponsible, everyone knows you pour it out outside.
- into the gravel filled used oil pit?
  
  Finally, an educated person up to date on the latest in popular science.

My favorite overheard undergrad story:
I was walking past the lecture hall right after an organic chemistry midterm, and there was a cluster of 4-5 students talking about the exam. One asked about question 8b, and another one said "you're not supposed to mix nitric acid and ethanol, that makes TNT, right?" I had to stifle a chuckle as I walked by.
So close, and yet so far! Nitrated acetone is explosive, and TNT (trinitrotoluene) is also made with nitric acid, but toluene is a much more complex molecule than acetone. If those undergrads could figure out how to turn acetone into TNT efficiently, they'd get a Nobel!
- If those undergrads could figure out how to turn acetone into TNT...
  Amateurs. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acetone_peroxide

I fondly remember my organic chemistry lab professor giving us all a lecture that was something like this:
"I see that you children have learned how good acetone is at cleaning glassware. And you are correct: it is excellent. However, you cannot pour it down the sink and we have to pay for hazardous waste disposal. So use soap, water, and elbow grease instead."

Smelling it untill it's totally evaporated. Even if I much prefer isopropyl alcohol.

What is the proper disposal method?
- Wick it with some paper towels and let it evaporate.
- Acetone evaporates quickly. You just let it sit for a minute and it'll dispose of itself
  
  so just inhale it all... ok
  
  Yeah, I don't work in a lab, but if I clean something in the shop with Acetone, I leave the rag to dry on the side of the trash can. If I think it's a lot, I'll put it outside to evaporate or burn it.
  
  Our hoods have a solvent trap at the front in case of large spills, it's a stainless steel grate covering a large, high surface area secondary steel trap below. Ngl, I pour smaller amounts of pure volatiles in there to evaporate. Usually < 10 mL. Small volumes with dissolved solids get dumped in the glass waste container in the hood to evaporate before disposal too.
  Not the best practice, but the pragmatic approach.
  Larger volumes go to proper waste containers. Local EHS mostly just dilutes things before pouring it down the drain. Not much we can do about that, so I opt for greener solvents from the beginning wherever possible.
- Pour it in a proper waste container with a label and hand it over to EHS if in a lab. If not, do what another commenter said and let small amounts evaporate in a well-ventilated place.
  Large volumes are something you should contact local waste disposal about. This usually isn't free, but sometimes they have certain times of year they'll take them for free. Large volumes are ~ >1L.

I did a couple of times pour acetone down the drain but I did run water at full blast at the same time to wash it down immediately. Guess Im slightly smarter then undergrads.
- the ol' dilute down the chute

EHS would raise hell if they caught us putting waste solvent in anything but a hazardous waste container...

Insane motherfuckers: "Pour the acetone in my mouth!"

Whichever one has the post polystyrene in it, right?

I fought hard to get a solvent extractor at my work. 11k paid for it's self in no time and almost no chemical disposal fees.

How else am I supposed to get rid of the agar huh?

55 comments