What is Hexane?

Hexane is derived from crude oils such as petroleum and is typically utilized as an industrial solvent. Hexane is a clear colorless liquid with a petroleum like odor.

Benefits of Hexane

• Low boiling point.
• Low surface tension.
• Low flash point.
• Low solubility.

Common Applications

Hexane is commonly utilized as an industrial solvent used to manufacture products like paint thinner.

Industrial Applications

Hexane is often utilized to manufacture adhesives and similar products in which it acts as a strong cleaning agent. Hexane is also used as a cleaning agent during the manufacturing of the printing, textiles, and shoemaking industries. Hexane is present in glues used in shoemaking and roofing. It is also utilized for vegetable oil extraction from soybeans and other plants. This process is more environmentally friendly and more cost efficient than the traditional mechanical press method. Pure Hexane is not commonly used for vegetable oil extraction, but rather a mixture of isomers that comprise commercial Hexane. Hexane is utilized as a solvent and cleaning agent by the military and aerospace industries.

Consumer Applications

Consumer products containing Hexane include rubber cement, quick drying glues, gasoline, and paint remover.

Laboratory Applications

Hexane is often utilized as a solvent and reagent in laboratories. Sometimes solvents would need to be removed from lab reagents for the experiment being conducted. Rotary Evaporators or rotavapors are machines that are used to remove solvents like Hexane and Heptane from reaction mixtures. Rotary evaporators are common in most organic laboratories since they allow the removal to be performed swiftly and efficiently.

Hexane and Rotary Evaporators

Hexane and similar solvents like Heptane, Ethanol, Ethyl Acetate, Methanol, and Diethyl Ether, are removed from reaction mixtures by tools called Rotary Evaporators.

How It Works

The rotary evaporator features a heated water bath in a metal container or crystallization dish so that the solvent will not freeze during the evaporation process.

The solvent and the reaction mixture are located inside of the rotary evaporator with the heated bath.

The solvent is removed from the reaction mixture by using a vacuum attached to the rotary evaporator that traps the solvent for easy disposal.

Laboratories often employ a simple water aspirator vacuum on their rotary evaporators.

A circulation bath or a membrane pump are typically used as the source for the vacuum.

The use of the vacuum means that the boiling points of the solvents are going to become significantly lower than normal.

A flask is connected to the rotary evaporator and the flask rotates during the evaporation process.

This flask is what collects the solvent for disposal.

Hexane Safety and Handling

When utilizing volatile compounds such as Hexane it is important to follow proper safety measures:

• Like Heptane, Hexane is a highly flammable liquid and vapor.
• Causes skin irritation.
• May cause an allergic skin reaction.
• May cause drowsiness or dizziness.

If you would like to purchase Hexane, please call (800)-563-1305 or shop Hexane online here.

Heptane and Hexane are both derived from crude oils. This origin means that they are made from petroleum, and that is why Heptane and Hexane are both commonly found in gasoline.

Heptane and the Octane Scale

Heptane and Hexane are both components of gasoline, but Heptane has its own special role in gasoline. Heptane helps to determine the Octane rating for fuel.

Pure Heptane has a zero rating on the octane. The higher the octane rating, the better a fuel is meant to be for your car’s engine, because the octane rating measures a fuel’s ability to resist engine knock at high compression.

Engine knocking is when an air-fuel mixture combustion occurs outside of front ignition combustion caused by the spark plug.

Heptane is highly flammable and very likely to combust, which is why pure Heptane fuel measure zero on the octane scale. Gasoline companies boast of “high-octane” fuel to let consumers know that their product is good for car engines–or to let people think that it is.

Toxicity

Both Heptane and Hexane are toxic, but Hexane is more toxic than Heptane. Both substances have highly flammable liquids and vapors.

Other Common Applications

Heptane and Hexane can both be used as solvents. Hexane is often utilized by the military and aerospace industries.

Both substances are used as industrial cleaners.

Heptane can be used for outdoor stove fuel, in rubber cement, and in certain paint coatings. Heptane is also utilized in anesthetics, cements, compounders, inks, lab reagents, organic synthesis, and as a general laboratory solvent.

Heptane and Hexane are used often to extract vegetable oils from seeds and plants. Hexane is used most often for this purpose.

Hexane residue is sometimes left on certain vegetables, such as soy-based foods, but it is a negligible amount that would be non-toxic upon ingestion.

Using Hexane to extract oils is more cost efficient and more environmentally friendly than the traditional method of using mechanical presses to retrieve soybean or other oils. This benefit is why the risk is worth the reward when it comes to using Hexane instead of the press method.

Pure Hexane is not used to extract vegetable oils, but rather a mixture of isomers used to comprise commercial grade Hexane.

Heptane and Hexane Safety and Handling

• Heptane and Hexane should be used in a well-ventilated area.
• Cause skin irritation.
• May cause drowsiness or dizziness.
• Toxic to organs upon prolonged exposure.
• Toxic to aquatic life.

If you would like to purchase Hexane or Heptane please call (800)-563-1305 or shop our commodity chemicals here.