How to Purify 70% Ethyl Rubbing Alcohol

See my write-up of this experiment on sciencemadness: sciencemadness.org/talk/viewthread.php?tid=6332…

In this video, I'll show you how to purify 70% ethyl rubbing alcohol from the pharmacy into nearly anhydrous reagent grade ethanol.
The purification process involves 3 main steps (and an optional one):

1) Simple distillation
This concentrates the ethanol to about 85% and leaves behind higher-boiling impurities like MIBK and Denatonium benozate

2) Drying
The ethanol is dried using MgSO4 and filtered. Other appropriate drying agents like K2CO3 and molecular sieves could be used.

2a) Fractional distillation *OPTIONAL*
This is to remove the acetone. Discard the acetone distillate that comes over at 56 C and stop the distillation once the temp rises above 56 C.

3)Final simple distillation
Finally, we distill off the ethanol from any MgSO4 that may have dissolved in it. This distillation is nto necessary if you used molecular sieves.

***WARNING*****
This ethanol is intended to be used as a lab solvent or reagent ONLY. IT IS NOT intended for topical or ingestion purposes.

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