triethylene glycol

[scriptlord]

I was reading the back of a bottle of cleaning solution and found that it contained triethylene glycol, chloroxyenol, and IPA. I was wondering if there was anyway it could be refined into butylene glycol. The bottle says that if any is swallowed to drink with milk and egg whites and call if irritation persists. I am not planning on drinking it right in this state but wonder if there was any way to refine it.
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"When I die, I'd like to be reborn as myself"
-HUGH HEFNER

 

[Party_Animal]

I woudn't recommend doing it if you aren't experienced. Your product might not be what you think it will be.
Instructions will probably be on the internet somewhere...just use the amazing things called search engines.
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Whatever you look for, is the focus

 

[AbraMontague]

Wouldn't it be a hell of a lot easier just to buy some butylene glycol online? Let me answer that, yes. I mean you are talking about refining a mixture of hydrocarbons into one totally different chemical. The reagents you would need would probably be harder to get than BDO itself.

 

[Good Corruption]

The bottle says that if any is swallowed to drink with milk and egg whites and call if irritation persists.

now does that sound like something you would want in yer stomach??
i'm guessing the substance is either an extreme base or an extreme acid and the milk and egg whites is used to try to neutralize the ph so the substance wont eat away yer stomach as rapidly so the ambulance has time to get to you...

 

[Roches]

unlike "tetramethylene glycol" (butylene glycol or 1,4-butanediol), triethylene glycol is actually a trimer of ethylene glycol, rather than the glycol of three ethylene radicals (it's an old naming system anyway..):
HO-CH2-CH2-O-CH2-CH2-O-CH2-CH2-OH
i can think of absolutely no way this could be changed into 1,4-BDO. even if it *is* possible, it would have to go through ethylene glycol, which is more easily obtained, as an intermediate.

 

[Roches]

btw, triethylene glycol is not a hydrocarbon, nor is it strongly acidic or basic. it is slightly acidic. i suspect the logic behind the milk and egg whites is that it might bind with the proteins they contain.

 

[PhreeX]

Wow, good answer Roche!
To second that - it might be *possible* but definitly not practical, nor is that kitchen chemistry.. but there could be good money in selling the cleaning fluid to ravers as "Super G"...
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[Roches]

well change that, i found a way...
actually, two ways.
each in about 5 steps.
but then, if you know how to do a Wolff-Kischner reduction you're probably way ahead of me already =)