[RisingEastStar17]

I was thinking about this the other day. Until lately, I have always being using diethyl ether and toluene as my solvent of choice when I was recommended to try chloroform. And long story short, it definitely works really good with extractions but not so much as a general solvent. In terms of money, would using chloroform be much cheaper to use or staying with diethyl ether?

[Babcock_Hall]

It is my understanding that solubility of the substance may be a factor in some instances.  I recall hearing a spectroscopist discussing unknown impurities that he was often tasked to identify.  For him chloroform was the go-to solvent.

[sjb]

Obviously it does depend on exact use, but don't forget NMR standards and dichlorocarbenes..

[Corribus]

Great for extractions/separations because it's heavier than (and highly immiscible with) water. I did my PhD work with porphyrins so it was also very useful as synthetic and analytical solvent because it is non-coordinating (does not readily coordinate to metal ions). Finally, it better than a lot of aromatic organic solvents (like toluene) for spectroscopic expts because it is pretty much UV-Vis and fluorescence silent. As FTIR solvent it isn't nearly as good as carbon tetrachloride, but... well, ya know. Don't wanna die.