Drying Solvents

Alot of home chemists when extracting or buying solvents or organic extractions you would want a nice dry solvent with no water in it for best results, to do this, there are certain inorganic chemicals int the anhydrous form which will remove the the water from the solvent with out dissolving into the solvent. to find the right one, you must work out the before and after chemical is still insoluble in the solvent. for example Calcium oxide is insoluble in methanol as well as calcium hydroxide is insoluble in methanol. so say you have 100mls of methanol and 1-2mls is water so you would add a few grams of calcium oxide which will react with water using it up to form calcium hydroxide which can just be decanted off having a nice dry solvent. Common drying agents are Calcium Chloride, Sodium Sulfate, Calcium Sulfate, Magnesium sulfate all in there anhydrous form, this can be done by heating it up till all the water evaporate

The list below are common solvent and a few uncommon solvents for the home chemist along with the drying agent listed beside it.

Solvent

• Acetone - K₂CO₃, CaCl₂, CuSO₄
• Acetic Acid - P₂O₅, CuSO₄
• Acetic Anhydride - CaCl₂
• Acetonitrile - K₂CO₃, CaCl₂, P₂O₅
• Aniline - KOH, BaO
• Anisole - CaCl₂, Na, Distillation
• Benzene - CaCl₂, Na, CaH₂, Distillation
• 1-Butanol - K₂CO₃, Distillation
• 2-Butanol - K₂CO₃, Distillation
• tert-Butanol - CaO, Freezing
• n-Butyl Acetate - MgSO₄
• Carbon Disulfide - P₂O₅,CaCl₂
• Carbon Tetrachloride - P₂O₃, Pb/Na, Distillation
• Chlorobenzene - P₂O₅,CaCl₂, Distillation
• Chloroform - CaCl₂, P₂O₃, Pb/Na
• Cyclohexane - Na, Na/Pb, LiAlH₄
• Decahydronaphthalene - CaCl₂, Na, Na/Pb
• Dichloromethane - CaH₂, CaCl₂, Na/Pb
• Diethyl Carbonate - K₂CO₃, Na₂SO₄
• Diethylene Gycol - CaCl₂, Na
• Diethyl Ether - CaCl₂, Na, Pb/Na, LiAlH₄
• Di-isopropyl Ether - CaCl₂, Na
• Dimethyl Formamide - Distillation
• 1,4 Dioxane - CaCl₂, Na
• Ethanol - CaO, Mg, MgO
• Ethyl Acetate - K₂CO₃, P₂O₅, Na₂SO₄, CaH₂
• Ethylene Glycol - Na₂SO₄, Distillation
• Ethyl Formate - MgSO₄, Na₂SO₄
• Formamide - Na₂SO₄, CaO
• Glycerol - Distillation
• Heptane - CaH₂
• n-Hexane - Na, Pb/Na, LiAlH₄, CaH₂
• Isobutanol - K₂CO₃, CaO, Mg
• Methanol - Mg, CaO
• Methyl Acetate - K₂CO₃, CaO
• Methyl Ethyl Ketone - K₂CO₃
• Nitrobenzene - CaCl₂, P₂O₅
• 1-Propanol - CaO, Mg
• 2-Propanol - CaO, Mg
• Pyridine - KOH, BaO
• Thionyl Chloride - Redistill
• Toluene - Ca, CaCl₂, Na, Distillation
• Trichloroethlene - K₂CO₃, Na₂SO₄
• Xylene - Na, CaCl₂, Distillation

Once agian if you know a common solvent, feel free to comment and ill add it in or if theres any mistakes