Talk:Solvent

It is requested that a diagram or diagrams of a chemical substance be included in this article to improve its quality. Specific illustrations, plots or diagrams can be requested at Wikiproject Chemistry Image Request or at the Graphic Lab.
For more information, refer to discussion on this page and/or on Wikiproject Chemistry Image Request. Please also see the image style guide before uploading images..

Chemistry B‑class High‑importance

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Chemistry, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of chemistry on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.ChemistryWikipedia:WikiProject ChemistryTemplate:WikiProject ChemistryChemistry articles
B	This article has been rated as B-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale.
High	This article has been rated as High-importance on the project's importance scale.

Medicine: Toxicology B‑class Low‑importance

	Medicine portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Medicine, which recommends that medicine-related articles follow the Manual of Style for medicine-related articles and that biomedical information in any article use high-quality medical sources. Please visit the project page for details or ask questions at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Medicine.MedicineWikipedia:WikiProject MedicineTemplate:WikiProject Medicinemedicine articles
B	This article has been rated as B-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale.
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.
	This article is supported by the Toxicology task force (assessed as Mid-importance).

Solvent table has another error?

Ethyl acetate in the none polars in the second, and the polar aprotics in the first —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.24.47.178 (talk) 10:10, 14 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Fixed. Thank you. Materialscientist (talk) 10:35, 14 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Solvent table has an error?

On the first one, it's listing DCM as a none polar, and the second lists it as a polar.

Thank you. Fixed (it is somewhat polar). Materialscientist (talk) 22:30, 23 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Some Hansen data incorrect

Some of the Hansen solubility parameter data is not in agreement with original sources. The example with finding substitute mixtures for chloroform is not valid with the current values of the parameters of dioxane. Hansen's book has the values 19.0,1.8,7.4 for the three parameters D,P,H. A much better fit is with a mixture of toluene and tetrahydrofuran. Perhaps there was a mixup somewhere; this is important because there are good reasons for not using chloroform (for one thing, it spontaneously decomposes to form phosgene, a very poisonous material) In addition, both dioxane and tetrahydrafuran are problematic in that they form explosive peroxides on storage. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 97.113.108.124 (talk) 05:43, 19 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

For solubility data, why is the temperature not given. Clearly, this affects solubility and therefore should be quoted. (question made by 80.5.160.8)

Actually, we don't have solubility data on this page :-) Cacycle 16:51, 5 Feb 2005 (UTC)

I was wondering if NaCl would dissolve in Ethanol. Would a polar solute be dissolved in a non-polar solvent?

Solvent is a liquid?

Why are we saying "A solvent is a liquid" here? The solution page clearly states that gases may be dissolved in themselves, and why not gases, liquids and solids into solids?

I agree; f.x. you dissolve gases or liquids in polymer matrices or in liquid crystalline phases for that matter. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Pwt dk (talk • contribs) 12:11, 5 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I also agree. In semicondutors, the dopant (or any metal nearby) will dissolve in the silicon, particularly as it warms up. Silver solder is also used in audio electronics to prevent silver being leached out of components by a tin/lead alloy. The majority of solvents are seen as liquids, but adding a note about this would be good.

"Natural" solvents?

I can't find information here on "natural" solvents like Pine-Sol or Goo Gone. Any idea what they are chemically and why they can dissolve things that usually require nasty nonpolar solvents? —BenFrantzDale 19:40, 22 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Merge

See Talk:Solution#Merging Solution with Soluble and Solvent. --Unsigned comment added 22:45, 11 May 2006 by User:Black and White. Edited by User:Centrx on 24 May 2006.

Definition through itself

Isn't saying solvent dissolves defining it with the word itself. May-be merging with Solution will be a good idea, but if they don't get merged, I think the first sentence needs something else instead of dissolves.80.235.71.49 16:13, 6 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

hey can a solvent dissolve a plasma? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Thunder god 15 (talk • contribs) 09:24, 11 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

"A solvent is a liquid or gas that dissolves a solid, liquid, or gaseous solute, resulting in a solution." The entire article has this character; there is no information about what a solvent actually is, from a Physics of even physical Chemistry analysis. The article is absurdly circular.

Couple of points - Inert/recrystalisation

Although picky I think the following sentance needs re-wording

Solvents should therefore not react chemically with the dissolved compounds — they have to be inert. I can think of several instances in which solvents also act as reagents, most notably the birch reduction (both ammonia and ethanol), formation of nucleophiles such as alkoxides, to name but a few.

An important point which should also be noted (linked) is the process of recrystalisation.Dant1t 23:17, 22 October 2007 (UTC)dant1t[reply]

NO REFERENCE FOR PEROXIDE FORMATION

Please provide better mechanism including reference. Formation of peroxides is a critical safety issue. Specifically, your mechanism does not rationalize formation the peroxide. The oxygen radical needs to form a bond with the oxygen atom already present on THF, not on the carbon, right? How is the peroxide formed?

POLAR IN THIS CASE IS NOT NECESSARILY HYDROPHILIC

POLARITY scale also depends on the kind of chemistry being done. Dichlormethane, Ethyl acetate, diethyl ether, Chloroform and others are polar for uses in synthetic organic chemistry and DO NOT DISSOLVE IN WATER. Your statement is an incorrect oversipmlification. Polarity of solvents as you say later on the paragraph has to do with the dipole of the molecule and the solvent's ability to dissolve the solute in question and NOT IF THEY DISSOLVE IN Water. Lowry & Richardson, Mechanism and Theory in Organic Chemistry, 3rd Ed. Harper Collins Publishers (1987) p. 177 discusses and suggests nonpolar solvents have dielectric constant of less than approximately 15.

YOU REALLY NEED REFERENCES. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 141.214.17.5 (talk) 20:19, 29 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Actually, DCM, EA, ether, chloroform are non-polar solvents. Polar solvents really, should start from acetone, dmso, ethanol, methanol onward. These are the solvents of polarity ~ 0.4 and above. And yes, I am a synthetic chemist. --Rifleman 82 (talk) 01:38, 30 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Again, we need accepted peer reviewed references not the opinion of an annonymous editor purporting to be a chemist.

Plus, hey synthetic chemist, if you have time, could you provide the mechanism and reference for peroxide formation in THF. THanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 141.214.17.5 (talk) 21:38, 13 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Under links, Link for table 1 is broken.

Error in the table: 1,4-dioxane a polar aprotic solvent? Isn't it a mistake to list 1,4-dioxane as a polar solvent? F.x. in view of the low dielectric constant and in comparison to diethyl ether listed in the non-polar catagory. Bold text —Preceding unsigned comment added by Pwt dk (talk • contribs) 12:17, 5 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

DIOXANE: 1,4-dioxane is put under non-polar solvens, but in the 1,4-dioxane article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1,4-Dioxane) following is written: "It is a versatile polar aprotic solvent". So the question is, which is most true? I dont know if one should define it from dielectric const or solubility in water... is there some IUPAC (or alike) definition of when something is considered polar, and if so, could we include it? Aimdezilaere (talk) 09:31, 15 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

elements as solvents?

Is there any Chemical element that is used as a solvent? I mean something like a particular substance dissolves in say Mercury (element)) and therefore Mercury is used as a solvent for commercial/research work. manya (talk) 04:39, 9 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Mercury solutions are called amalgams. Mercury is used to dissolve sodium (mercury cell process) and gold (an ancient gold refining method). --Vuo (talk) 17:58, 5 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

food, cosmetic industry solvents

such as dimethyl isosorbide, dimethyl sulfoxide (dmso), glycofurol (glycofurol 75), ethyl lactate, solketal, n methyl pyrolidonone. Cinnamon colbert (talk) 14:12, 30 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]