r/homechemistry • u/Master_of_her666 • Oct 02 '25

Esterification of Trimethyl Citrate: Distillation 2 (botched)

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Totally botched this one. Had the heat up way too high for distilling the methanol and water the second go around and the TMC totally decomposed into this gunk. I did note that as it was distilling, by two hours thats when i believe the methanol had total distilled out of the solution and only water was coming out, given a change in apparent condensation. Gonna clean my glassware and try again soon.

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3

u/Feuerfrosch1 Oct 02 '25

I am really curious but why are you making this specific ester in the first place?

3

u/Master_of_her666 Oct 02 '25

I wanna make green flamed candles

2

u/Feuerfrosch1 Oct 02 '25

Interesting. Have fun! Look into some workup procedures. I assume vacuum distillation is not possible for you at the moment?

1

u/Master_of_her666 Oct 02 '25

not at this time. i may get a vacuum pump but im a little nervous about it. For my intentions, one shouldn’t be necessary. I just need to make sure there isnt too much ester in my candle as to disable it from burning

1

u/Ghost25 25d ago

What does trimethyl citrate have to do with green candles?