Acetone

Acetone is a polar, aprotic solvent, widely used in analytical chemistry and in organic synthesis, due to its ability to dissolve a wide range of organic compounds including polar and non-polar substances.

One of the key advantages of using acetone as a solvent in organic synthesis is its low boiling point and high volatility, which makes it easy to remove from reaction mixtures. This property is particularly useful for reactions that require high temperatures or for the removal of excess reagents or solvents and for reactions that require a polar solvent, such as nucleophilic substitution reactions, aldol condensations, and Grignard reactions.

Acetone as a solvent or mobile phase in analytical chemistry

In chromatography, acetone is often used as a mobile phase solvent in both gas chromatography (GC) and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Its high solubility and volatility make it an effective solvent for separating and analyzing complex mixtures.

Acetone is also used as a solvent for sample preparation in many analytical methods, including infrared spectroscopy (IR), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), and mass spectrometry (MS). It is particularly useful for dissolving and extracting small organic molecules from solid samples.

Acetone solution

Acetone with a mixture of methanol and water is used in HPLC or GC.

Deuterated acetone (Acetone-d₆)

Acetone-d6 (with deuteration degree between 98-99.96%) along with or without trimethyl silane is used as a solvent in NMR spectrometer.

Labeled acetones (Acetone-2-13C, Acetone-1,3-13C2, Acetone-18O)

Labeled acetone can be used as a solvent to characterize the structure and dynamics of proteins and other biomolecules such as amino acids using NMR.

Acetone as a reference material

Acetone is used as a pharmaceutical secondary standard, which is a reference material that is used for the calibration and quality control of analytical instruments and for residue analysis.