[blake_jl]

Hello,

I am currently using mineral spirits as a solvent in an experiment of mine. I have read it has a drying time of 50 minutes.

I am looking for something that will dry faster than that but not be carsongenic and highly volatile. Many old formulary I have studied use naptha which is bad stuff apparently.

Can anyone suggest anything for me?

Thanks

[Controlled Substance]

Please forgive me if I am mistaken, but I'm pretty sure that evaporation time and volatility go hand-in-hand.

Therefore, to have a faster evaporating solvent, it would need to be more volatile than the mineral spirits.

As for a recommendation, someone else may be able to help you once you give more details on your experiment. (This isn't my domain...)

[P]

We use a product called Texanol.  It is some kind of ester alcohol.  It is a solvent with a BP over 250C so doesn't contribute to VOCs and had a 'friendly' MSDS.  I don't know what it would do to your drying times, we use purely for coalescence.   It's made by Eastman  -  they may have other products.  If your need is comercial then you could call Eastman or Univar and ask them for suggestions - they may even send you some samples if you can get them to believe you may buy loads from them...

[blake_jl]

Thanks P and controlled substance.

For those who haven't seen my other threads the project is making carnauba paste wax for cars.

I will look into that solvent P. Cheers.

[blake_jl]

Can someone please explain to me in the simplest way possible how the surface tension of a solvent used in car wax would effect the surface of the car it is applied to?

I am reading about surface tension on wiki but it doesnt really help with my scenario.

[P]

I'm not sure if this is what you are looking for or not but... If the ST of the solvent is low and reduces the ST of your product, then you will get better coverage (better wetting) of the substrate.  If the product has too high ST then the product will 'pull off' into droplets and it wont give an even coating.

[blake_jl]

Thanks P,

I think you are right on the money as usual.

Thanks.