Way down upon the Swanee River

**planters** · 02-27-2016, 04:15

But,, yes you are correct I meant CH3OH, methanol.

**NobleGas** · 02-27-2016, 11:12

Originally Posted by mixedgas

MeOH and EtOH are widely used in the states in the last few years.

STEVE

Ah, they're not terms I've ever seen used in the UK; I was aware of the use of the term methyl hydrate, so guessed that was what was being referred to.

**kecked** · 02-28-2016, 15:34

buy everclear for the ethanol. It's 90+%.

Run it through activated carbon and then a filter to pick off the small particles. basic 5micron water filter works. If water is an issue you can dry it some with mgsulfate but you have to distill to break the aziotrope with a little added acetone (benzene is traditional but...)

Call Thermofisher and buy some. A LOT easier. You need a license to buy pharma ethanol.

**planters** · 02-28-2016, 20:59

I use "denatured" ethanol that is specifically denatured with methanol 5%. This does not interfere with its function, as anything that I use that is soluble in ethanol will be soluble in methanol and the net polarity of the mixture will be essentially that of ethanol.

I tried 99.9% isopropyl on the chance that the stuff from Wall Mart was a step in the right direction, but higher purity stuff would work even better. It didn't.

**dsli_jon** · 03-01-2016, 07:43

Fascinating data, Sire...

Will be especially keen to keep track of your 'decay' findings / performance over time with the IPA, and any other anomaly-findings you'd be willing to share.. Especially-keen to hear of any performance-data with Sulfarhody-640 and IPA..

BTW, been meaning to relate / suggest this to you: I was on a gig / sort of 'retreat' for a few days last fall in N. AZ, and after - literally - spending the 45˚ night sleeping on a large rock, warmed only by a fire we'd made (forest-safe..

and make-shift 'sleeping bags' out of one of those car-window 'heat-shields' and a rather large piece of poly-sheeting we found (the idea was to see if we Could 'rough it' / make it thru with not much more than our wits..

we 'rewarded ourselves' with a nice hot breakfast in town, and whilst waiting for our cuppa Joe, my Son took to picking a rather over-ripe 'Prickly-pear fruit' from the terrace garden, to share with me as an appetizer (which are fantastic, btw, especially given the alternative prospect of roast-lizard for breakfast..

..Anyhoo, after I got done scolding him for 'not respecting thier property' blee, blah, blah, I was taken by the unbelievably-intense color and concentration of the 'juice', as it very-expertly stained the living daylights out of my shirt.. And I began to think thru gleaning a few dozen of them to purify / make enough, uh, 'Cacdye', thinking that the water in the plant-pulp would already supply the 'water' that you'd typically mix-in with Me / dye-powders.. Never got around to being able to Test my prickly-theory

but.. I am willing to bet 1/2 the farm that Prickly-pear fruit-juice would make one hella-beam, refined properly.. It's Intense!

..However, it looks as though you did Not add any water to the IPA? (would make-sense Not..), so.. Wondering if the 'Cacdye' would have to be mixed with Me, only, considering its' high water-content... Yeah, I - suppose - you could juice / reduce / concentrate / powder, etc the dye-component in the fruit, so as to be able to use it in other-mixes that would Not want H2O in there, but.. Eeek, that would be arduous.. I'm betting - and would be Thrilled to see You do this

- that it Could be done, as-is, just µm-filtered / purified, and mixed up with some Me..

..Perhaps Sir Swami could select / send you some choice fruit to test?

Staying tuned..

j

**planters** · 03-01-2016, 09:39

Injured thumb, so typing slowly.

I did not add any H20 to the 91%, but as I said, removing the 9% made no difference. Going to the typical 50% H20 and alcohol (in this case isopropyl) does reduce the power. All my dyes work better with pure alcohol, but the beam quality suffers, presumably due to the lower specific heat/ thermal lens-ing during pumping. Just about anything soluble in H2O will be soluble in alcohol especially if there is some H2O in the mix. The big question is if the cactus dye is florescent. De-carbonated quinine water will lase. If it is fluorescent then it is worth a try. Assuming this is so, the next step step is getting some to a UV spectrometer to see where its absorption band is located. Most laser dyes seem to have a primary absorption no more than 100nm and usually between 50 and 100nm blue of their florescence peak. What ti the florescence peak/color. Lastly, once the pump is determined such as 532 or 488 etc then a cavity with essentially 100% mirrors on both ends to try to get it to lase.

**swamidog** · 03-01-2016, 09:50

Originally Posted by dsli_jon