How to get dry actone?

Question

An extraction i am doing calls for dry acetone, i am not even sure what it would look like.

Can anyone tell me how to aquire dry acetone from standard liquid acetone and what it should look like when its "Dry"

Answer 1

Yes, dry acetone means anhydrous, no water. Simple distillation won't work, since there is a water / acetone azeotrope (12%:88%, bp 56C.) You need to add a drying agent such as 4A molecular sieves or anhydrous potassium carbonate, then filter.

All of this requires a lot of effort. You're much better served buying anhydrous acetone from a supply house like Aldrich or JT Baker.

I also agree w/ the other poster who said you do not need anhydrous acetone for extractions. Verify that you really need anhydrous before doing all this work.

Answer 2

Dry acetone means no water in it.
It looks like the same as standard acetone liquid. You can check the label of your acetone container to see the water content. It usually contains less than 1% water (nearly dry). If you still like to use "dry" acetone, you can buy the HPLC grade acetone.
In fact, if you use acetone to extract plant material, it does not which grade of acetone that you use.

Answer 3

Dry usually means without water (i.e. not wet).

One way to dry it would be to carefully heat it (it's very flammable) so that just the acetone boils off. Then condense the acetone vapor back to a liquid. It's also a strong solvent and not desirable to breathe.

Since acetone is clear and water is clear, the only way to tell would be to let the acetone evaporate (which it will readily do) leaving the water behind at room temperature.

Answer 4

Dry actone is a term to descible a solven that is free from water. water -> hence it is wet. You have to distill under nitrogen over a compound that aborbs the water. I'm not sure but I think NaOH can be used.

Answer 5

It would Probably be in a Powder or Crystiline form..................