Chemicals | Isopropyl Alcohol (2-Propanol)

Isopropyl alcohol is a common and widely used universal cleaning agent, solvent and disinfectant. Its quality as well as its mass fraction in the final concentration can be determined using refractometry.

Isopropyl alcohol (propan-2-ol, s-propanol), with the chemical formula C2H8O, is one of the most produced chemicals in the world. It is miscible with polar solvents like water, alcohol, ether or chloroform and commonly used in chemistry, medicine, the automotive and gasoline industries as, for example:
- All-purpose cleaner, e.g. to remove oil from technical devices
- Windshield deicer or ice prevention spray and as an additive to prevent water freezing in supply lines
- Solvent for gums, shellac, essential oils, creosote, and resins
- Ingredient for fast-drying inks and fast-drying oils
- Denaturant for ethyl alcohol, cosmetics, aftershaves, hand lotions, and hair-care products
- Solvent in the synthesis of solid-phase acylating agents
- Precipitating agent for DNA extraction
Conventional determination of the isopropyl alcohol content in water is done by gas chromatography, which is a time-consuming process. Infrared spectroscopy methods (e.g. NIR) are also used, for example in the printing and pharmaceutical industry. Isopropyl alcohol is hygroscopic, which, depending on the preparation and measuring time, might cause incorrect measurement results. Instead of chromatography or spectroscopy, Abbemat refractometers from Anton Paar directly show the isopropyl alcohol content in water (g/100 g or % mas) within seconds. By using a micro flow cell only a few micro liters of the sample are required. As the measurement of the refractive index depends on the temperature, all Abbemat refractometers have a built-in Peltier temperature control which allows high temperature accuracy and therefore a precise and fast concentration determination. The isopropyl alcohol content can be determined with an accuracy of up to ± 0.088 g/100 g in the range of 0.0 g to 70.0 g/100 g.

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