First off I would like to thank everyone for their time and thoughts
to our mystery, which as of now remains a mysery.
We ran GC and it i s not in our library. I'm hoping someone might be
able to help wit h some new information.
ion 91 is the strongest peak
ion 61 is ap x 75% of ion 91
ion 45 is apx 50% of ion 61.
the peaks were very light so we are extending run time to see if we
can generate more peaks.
we ran ph on all samples. 5 of the 7 are ph 12, 2 of the samp les are
ph 7. The two that are ph 7 are obviously the most concent rated based
on the odor that rushes at you when you open the jar.
Thanks for your continued help,
Andrew Gross
On Mon, Jan 4, 2010 at 11:41 AM, Clark, Richard C <rcclark**At_Symbol_Here**bemis.com> wrote:Just got back to work this morning after a week's vacation and read thepostings related to this problem. The chlordane speculation merits comment.& nbsp; I was the works chemist forVelsicol at M arshall, IL just before the plant closed in the late 70's.That was the only site in the world that manufactured chlordane ; Velsicolalso manufactured hexachlor at another site (Tennessee, I think). Chlordaneis a polychlorinated dicyclopentadiene and had lots of by-products;
hexachlor was hexachlorocyclopentadiene made by a different process and was
much purer. Chlordane was so heavy that it could only be shipped in 30-gal.drums. It was diluted by reformulators with kerose ne (5-10% chlordane, Ithink). The k erosene-chlordane mixture could be dispersed in water with theaid of detergent to make an emulsion for field spraying and termitetreatment. With the closure of t he Marshall, IL plant, acquisition ofVelsicol by Great Lakes Chemical (now part of Chemtura), and environmental
< /blockquote>issues, chlordane manufacture was never re-started. This might explain theage of the drums.Chlordane is  ;an impure mixture containing numerous chlorination byproductsof cyclopentadiene and dicyclopentadiene. The EPA pub lished a GC-MS studyof it ca. 1976 in Analytic al Chemistry which revealed dozens of compounds..Velsicol had no idea of that complexity; we were using packed column GC< br> technology for process control. I'm not s ure that GC-MS will be useful foridentifi cation given the mixture of kerosene and chlordane. That would be anidentification nightmare.Chlordane yellows with age. The green f lame is from the Bielstein test forchlorine. The emulsion of the kerosene mixture is cloudy-white. While the< br>initial boiling point may be 27=C2=B0C, the boi ling point may rise quickly above100=C2=B0C. An ASTM distillation will give some idea of that. Infrared
blockquote>spectroscopy of the distillation fractions (10% volu me cuts) should show amixture of saturate d hydrocarbons and chlorination of saturated andunsaturated hydrocarbons. I'll be surprised if you can take the
distillation to a dry point before the flask conte nts start to smoke;chlordane will likely break down before it distills. If the low boilingcomponents are chlorinated by-products, they won't flash. Hope this helps (and my memory isn't too inaccurate).Rick Clark Sr. Research ChemistCurwood, Inc.________________________________From: DCHAS-L Discussion List [mailto:DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**list.uvm.edu] On Behalf OfList ModeratorSent: Monday, Decem ber 28, 2009 11:38 AMTo: DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**LIST.UVM.EDUSubject: Re: [DCHAS-L] Unknown Hazardous ChemicalFrom: Andrew Gross <gross.drew**At_Symbol_Here**gmail.com a>>Date: December 28, 2009 12:02:48 PM EST< br>Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] Unknown Hazardous Chemic alHi Everyone,My lab recieved a sample from a power plant that they do not know whatit is and wish to have it identified. I am trying to ID it becauseuntil I have a better idea it is on hold for all testing (read on to
blockquote>find out why). I'm hoping for some thoughts.Sample is liquid in appearance, but lighter then di-chloromethane. Ithink it is actually an oil of some kind. It is transparant yellowand some say it smells like kerosene. It forms a white emulsion when mixed with water.T here is no flash point. On closed cup method it flames out below
< /blockquote>25C. It does not ignite when exposed to direc t flame. However itboils around 27C.
Exposed flame turns green (like copper flame), vap ors also turn flame green.When dried, it turns to a waxy white translucent crystal. My closedcup flame is still green meaning it is contaminated by the vapors. Vapors in small quanteties (under hood) cause na usea, light headednessand confusion.pH is 6ish (litmus paper) although client claims it to b e caustic.All PCB analysis came up negative.The exposure effects are why all tests are on ho ld till we have abetter idea as to what were d ealing with as well as the remainingtests for my department involve reacting with acid and pumpingnitrogen through it. Thoughts, ideas, exp eriences? Client has 5 unidentified drums of thisstuff and has no idea what it is. We need to identify but I am not going to put anyone in danger until I kn ow more about it.Andrew Gross
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