FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[Barry Vincent]

I'm getting together a selection of reagents ect (as listed in Pough's Field Guide) so as to try my hand at Blowpipe Analysis.
However I've come up against a problem of obtaining Ethyl Alcohol (Ethanol) for use as a solvent for dissolving Dimethylglyoxime. I've been informed that I need a permit from the Tax Office (ATO) to be allow to obtain Ethyl.
This is a real nuisance as I only need about 200 ml.
Is there an alternative reagent that can be used.
The Dimethyl-glyoxime solution is used for testing the presence of Nickle.

[Pete Modreski]

I've not actually done this procedure so I don't know for certain, but I would think that ordinary "denatured alcohol" (impure ethanol, sold as alcohol stove fuel) would work equally well.

[Barry Vincent]

[GneissWare]

Yes. From wikipedia:

Denatured alcohol or methylated spirits is ethanol that has additives to make it poisonous, extremely bad tasting, foul smelling or nauseating, to discourage recreational consumption. In some cases it is also dyed.

Denatured alcohol is used as a solvent and as fuel for spirit burners and camping stoves. Because of the diversity of industrial uses for denatured alcohol, hundreds of additives and denaturing methods have been used. The main additive has traditionally been 10% methanol, giving rise to the term "methylated spirits". Other typical additives include isopropyl alcohol, acetone, methyl ethyl ketone, methyl isobutyl ketone, and denatonium.[1]

Denaturing alcohol does not chemically alter the ethanol molecule. Rather, the ethanol is mixed with other chemicals to form an undrinkable solution.

[Barry Vincent]

Thanks for the response Gneiss.
I just looked at the 1lt bottle of Methylated Spirits that I already have and it says
on the label 95 % v/v Ethanol. No dyes have been added as it's clear.
Seems therefore that there is a real possibility that I could use Methylated Spirits as
an alternative to pure ethyl (Ethanol)