Is this pure acetone or how do you tell?
Dallife
Posts: 75 ✭✭✭
I got this at Home Depot or Menards a while ago but it doesn't say it's pure acetone. On the back bottom it says Max VOC 3% but don't know what it means.
I looked on Amazon for pure acetone and getting mostly nail polish remover stuff which I've tested on copper spenders but it leaves a white coating on the pennies. 
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In another thread, I read that you can see how pure acetone is by putting a drop on a clean piece of glass or on a mirror and then see if there's any residue left after it evaporates.
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I noticed a similar thing years ago when getting an acetone at Lowes. These appear to be 100% acetone and sometimes can find it. This one did happen to show up saying 100% acetone in the Klean Strip link below.
https://kleanstrip.com/tutorials/welcome-to-klean-strip-acetone/
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hardware store acetone varies a lot batch to batch. Order it from a chemical supply company like chemdirect if you want purity
That’s the brand I’ve been using for a very long time. I believe both Home Depot and Wally world both sell it.
Having fun while switching things up and focusing on a next level PCGS slabbed 1950+ type set, while still looking for great examples for the 7070.
I picked up that and another similar product which seems to be a mix called "Goof Off".
3% VOC would be 3% "volatile organic compounds". Those are contaminants. It's unlikely they will interact with a metal surface but as they are unknown compounds, I can't be 100% certain.
That's "maximum 3% VOC". In other words, it's probably higher than 97% acetone, but falling as low as 97% acetone won't fail their quality control process.
VOCs are, by definiton, volatile, and not soluble in water - we're talking things like hexane, chloroform or diethyl ether. All mostly things that, like acetone, will dissolve goo and evaporate quickly off the coin, so you're not likely to notice any practical difference.
This is about as "pure acetone" as you're likely to buy from a paint supplies store. To get 99.9% purity, you'd need a laboratory-grade chemical supplier like Merck. But this hardware-store acetone is plenty adequate for coin cleaning.
"Goof Off" is a different product entirely. It does contains acetone (the SDS says 15% to 40%) but also a whole bunch of other solvents such as methyl acetate, xylene and methanol, the precise composition of the mixture being a trade secret. While it ought to work just as well (if not better) at "removing goo" from coins, some of the compounds are either non-volatile (so don't evaporate away easily) or non-water-soluble (so won't wash off easily). I'd personally recommend a final rinse with acetone after using Goof Off.
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Rustoleum 333 thinner is also 100% acetone. I use it everyday at work.
Throw a coin enough times, and suppose one day it lands on its edge.
I get acetone from ACE hardware
Label says Acetone and Acetone only!
It’s overkill and not necessary, but I like to use reagent grade acetone that you can get off of Amazon. I use so little that a small bottle lasts a very long time.
Mr_Spud
Oh no, not more VOC!
I tried to track down the VOC max 3% thing. Only partially successful.
This EPA link was about the best summary I found.
https://www.epa.gov/indoor-air-quality-iaq/technical-overview-volatile-organic-compounds
In the link it has a table for VOC (Volatile Organic Compound) but also VVOC (very) and SVOC (semi). In this table Acetone is a VOC. But then there is more to it.
There are at least two definitions of VOC and they note indoor and outdoor but also if the VOC is reactive to the atmosphere to be an issue for ozone and such. The table noted in the link above is looking at boiling points to determine if it is VVOC, VOC or SVOC.
Then it notes the EPA:
"In the United States, emissions of VOCs to the outdoors are regulated by EPA mostly to prevent the formation of ozone, a constituent of photochemical smog."
"EPA formerly defined the regulated organic compounds in outdoor air as “Reactive Organic Gases“ (ROG). This terminology clarified its meaning as being limited to reactive chemicals. However, EPA later changed that terminology to “VOC”. Unfortunately, the use of the term “VOC” rather than ROG has created a misunderstanding when applied to indoor air quality. "
So it appears Acetone is not a VOC when viewing from outdoors and ozone. But it is a VOC and for indoors could cause problems (and why ventilation thing comes into play).
Can read the above link for much more information.
Now for the VOC max 3% - I think this keeps it under some regulation requirements. I take this mostly from finding one limit for paint thinner in NY being 3% but there may be others. Here is one link on this (paint thinner 3%) and there were others. It is a little interesting how high some aerosols are.
https://www.issa.com/articles/issa-updates-summary-of-voc-limits/
https://youtube.com/watch?v=2YNufnS_kf4 - Mama I'm coming home ...................................................................................................................................................................... RLJ 1958 - 2023
Does it even matter what the relatively small other ingredients are? You dip it, use a tissue and very little remains on the surfaces or you rinse in water then use the tissue. The other issue is that with some coins surface dirt, etc. is an asset not a liability. As one of the graders said on the cac forum even some pvc doesn't necessarily preclude a numerical grade.
If you really want PURE acetone.... reagent grade for laboratory use. But then you pay a lot more for it. The brand shown by the OP is very acceptable, as well as the others mentioned.
The ones I would be leery of would be the nail polish removers, and if you happen to find some acetone in plastic containers. while there are some plastics that withstand acetone..... would not trust due to possible leaching of oils, impurities, etc.
It doesn't matter, so long as you know what they are, and you know they won't stay behind on the coin and cause long-term damage. If you don't know that for certain, then it definitely does matter. You are using acetone on your coin presumably because it's got goo on it; you don't really want to be taking the old goo off only to replace it with some kind of fresh layer of goo.
With pure acetone, you can have faith that 100% of what you put on your coin will evaporate away, not just 80% or 97%. All you need is a final rinse in acetone - definitely no water rinse, and no tissues.
Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, "Meditations"
Apparently I have been awarded one DPOTD.