A few years back when I began to learn more details about chemistry and
chemical safety I was surprised to find that I had the wrong impressions
about what solvents were really bad for your health and which ones were
essentially harmless as long as the quantity was never more than a tiny bit
(in other words, the difference between a carcinogen and something toxic
but which can be metabolized in small amounts like ethanol)
I always used to think that acetone was super nasty. It isn't. It occurs in
our bodies naturally in tiny amounts and it is pretty certain that
occasional hobby-level use is not a cancer risk. Of course you can get sick
if you breathe in too much or swallow any more than a few milliliters.
Isopropanol is actually a little more nasty than acetone (but not much).
Both of them are good at dissolving the fat layer under the skin if you get
them on your skin for a prolonged period. If that happens you will get a
pretty bad irritation there until the body heals and you may develop a
sensitivity.
Toluene is also not all that nasty. It is methylbenzene but the methyl
group seems to prevent most of the carcinogenic action. Maximum safe
short-term dose is less than acetone/isopropanol.
Straight benzene is nasty. Very definite carcinogen which leads to leukemia
in a significant portion of those who are exposed chronically. I would not
use it without a fume hood or a good respirator. I also don't think it is
that much better a solvent than toluene and xylene.
Xylene is dimethylbenzene (and there are three isomers as the two methyl
groups can be either opposite each other, called para-dimethylbenzene or
p-xylene or 1,4-dimethylbenzene, or one step closer (120 degrees apart)
which is meta-dimethylbenzene or m-xylene or 1,3-dimethylbenzene, or next
to each other, ortho-dimethylbenzene, o-xylene, or 1,2-dimethylbenzene).
Usually commercial xylene is a mix of these. It is similar to toluene in
toxicity - the methyl groups seem to provide some degree of protection
against carcinogenicity but the jury is still out on whether chronic
exposure could cause cancer.
Gasoline/petrol is nasty because it is a mixture which usually contains a
healthy amount of benzene.
Of course these are all super flammable (but not quite like the
ridiculousness which is diethyl ether - similar to ethanol in toxicity but
much, much more volatile so you tend to get a significant dose from
inhaling it - but wow, is it flammable and it evaporates so fast that you
lose about 10% just pouring it from one container to another)
The chlorinated solvents are worse for health (dichloromethane a.k.a.
methylene chloride, trichloromethane a.k.a. chloroform, and
tetrachloromethane a.k.a. carbon tetrachloride are all carcinogens and
neurotoxins) but they have the benefit of being almost non-flammable.
On Thu, Dec 7, 2017 at 12:43 PM, Bob Blick <***@outlook.com> wrote:
> Xylene. Yuck. I'll save that one for last, after toluene. I hate them.
> Thought for sure the lacquer thinner would work, but today's "safe" lacquer
> thinner seems pretty useless.
>
> Alcohols (isopropyl and ethyl) don't seem to touch it.
>
> Goo-gone is something I will try, though I'll have to use something to
> remove the goo-gone afterwards.
>
> This adhesive is good stuff!
>
> The Kapton film itself is thin, barely 0.001" and really tough. The
> adhesive adds almost 0.002" so I want to get rid of it.
>
> I'm too cheap to buy plain Kapton film when I've already got these rolls
> of tape and a closet full of assorted household chemicals. I still have a
> few choices left to try, and I haven't yet tried the most powerful
> household chemical, cat vomit :)
>
> Thanks for the suggestions.
>
> Bob
>
>
>
> ________________________________________
> From: piclist-***@mit.edu <piclist-***@mit.edu> on behalf of Van
> Horn, David
> Sent: Thursday, December 7, 2017 9:02 AM
> To: Microcontroller discussion list - Public.
> Subject: RE: [EE] Stripping Kapton tape adhesive
>
> Xylene? Nasty stuff but it gets to things that acetone etc don't touch.
>
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