Understanding the Types of Cleaning Solvents

Solvents are essential for any industrial cleaning application. There are more than hundreds of different types of solvent cleaners, which have their own characteristics. The solvent is a substance that can be used to dissolve other materials without chemical change. Chemical solvents are classified as inorganic and organic. Organic solvents have carbon and include all of the common industrial metal cleaning solutions.

Cleaning Solvents:

There are many choices of cleaning solvents. The different types of solvents are given below:

There are three types of metal cleaning solutions available for use in various precision cleaning.

a) Oxygenated solvents

b) hydrocarbon solvents

c)Halogenated solvents

Oxygenated solvents:

Oxygenated solvents contain oxygen in their molecular structure. They are derived from petroleum products. They have low toxicity and high solvent power. Oxygenated solvents are widely used as additives in manufacturing a huge variety of products from cosmetics to paint. Also used for cleaning. Purity is required for these applications and these applications require to put emphasis on impurities. The manufacturing process for these substances is not expensive. They are very economical and very affordable. There are various examples of oxygenated solvents like Alcohols, Ethers, Esthers, Glycol Ethers, Glycol Ether Esthers and Ketones.

Hydrocarbon solvents:

They are petroleum-based solvents and the chemical the structure consists of hydrogen and carbon atoms. Hydrocarbon solvents can have very complex structures. Two types of Hydrocarbon Solvents are below:

Aliphatic Solvents:

They have a straight-chain hydrocarbon structure and are used as metal cleaning solvents and also in manufacturing, the likes of Gasoline, Kerosene and Hexane.

Aromatic Solvents: They are used decreasing agents in manufacturing paints, Inks and agricultural chemicals. They have a benzene ring structure. The popular examples are Benzene, Xylene, and Toluene.

Halogenated Solvents: 

These contain halogen atoms like Fluorine, Bromine, Iodine which is also called Chlorine. They are always non-inflammable and fast evaporating with tremendous high solvent capacity. They are widely used in Industries for precision cleaning and various other applications. But, the interesting factor is, most of them are not used, as there is a question of environmental reasons. They are Perchloroethylene, Chlorinated fluorocarbons, and Trichloroethane.

Solvent selection is definitely a complex task. One has to find the right one for one’s needs as the choice definitely will impact performance, product quality, regulatory compliance, and profitability.