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Would celite/carbon vacuum filtration perform well enough to remove photopolymers from isopropyl alcohol? (lemmy.ca)

submitted 5 months ago by [email protected] to c/askscience

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I am simply on a quest to find an effective non-distillation method for purifying isopropyl alcohol used for rinsing resin 3D prints.

I have seen some elaborate systems for curing and then filtering resin that is suspended in the isopropyl by running it through standard carbon water filters. That just seems a bit over-complex and does a poor job of removing dyes. In some cases, the filters are not fine enough and the isopropyl will eventually get "sticky".

It seems to me that a finer filtration system would work much better. Carbon and celite should catch most of the monomers and oligomers, but I am not sure about the photoinitiators and other additives.

Distillation is obviously the best method for purity, but there may be a worse cleanup and a higher fire hazard risk.

Are there better materials that I could use for filtering besides celite and carbon? IPA is tiny compared to the rest of the molecules I am dealing with so filtration seems viable.

(I should note that I would bulk develop the used IPA in clear plastic containers in the sun for a day or two first.)

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

Thanks for looking around! I already have a good selection of chemistry glass and am no stranger to doing home experiments. (I could probably use a good vacuum filter anyways and maybe I am just searching for an excuse to get one.) Distillation is an option for me, but it'll be last resort. Still, having a few proper distillation pieces would go nice with my collection....

Some filter rigs I have seen are using small RO systems, but that seems like a pain to clean and those people probably need to filter a ton of IPA for it to be cost effective. Regardless, it is absolutely worth exploring more as setting up a filter loop would be awesome until it gets gummed up.

This looked promising as it is dealing with ethanol and plant extracts: https://youtu.be/VjxZVpGv_aM?si=5VFLYQkObCzUawbb .. (This video specifically got me thinking about what could/couldn't be filtered and is the root of this post.)

And absolutely, a multi-stage rinsing system is going to be needed if I scale up, which may be in the near future. Full context: I am studying and planning for a reverse engineering/prototyping business, so there could be a considerable amount of printing in my future and this is particular problem is part of the cost analysis.