Talk:Butane

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It seems Butane is quite lethal when inhaled, can we get something on this plz


Perhaps it would have been better to split into one n-butane and one isobutane subpage?

An article this short? it's barely 1 screen in length. we'd just get 2 stubs -- Tarquin 20:09 Jan 23, 2003 (UTC)

I read something about 'butane abuse'. Who can enligthen the world on this subject?


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Does anyone have a pressure/temperature chart or table for Butane? If so, could it be added to this page?

Contents

[edit] hair mousse

I wanted 2 c what my hair products contain and found that iso butane is one of the ingredients in a hair mousse bottle. It was listed as no.4. Why so much and what does it really do there??? xxx

It's used as a propellant, to drive the product out of the container (I'm guessing it's a spray can?) Propane, butane and isobutane are common propellants for hair care products, and largely responsible for the flammability of such. The propellant evaporates completely from the product after it is applied. --GalFisk 12:41, 19 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] origins

It was not clear to me from the artical the origin of the gas, is a modified version of gas from the ground like you cook with or perhaps a petrolium derivative or from another source altoghether?

I've found out since its a petroleum (crude oil) derivative in a family called "aliphatic hydrocarbons" basically various combinations of carbon and hydrogen molecules, I think all the articals about the various members the family all very much stand-alone and would be good to see them all standardsed all well as having articals about advantages/disadvantages of butane over propane like butane burns hotter but is not good at cold tempratures

As for standardization, I'm in the process of trying to do something about this. You are quite right about the fact that this article should have something about why do we sometimes use butane and sometimes propane: butane is cheaper to put into a user-friendly form, but useless much below 0 °C (32 °F), to answer your question far too quickly! Physchim62 (talk·RfA) 15:17, 2 November 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Uses

I thought I might add that some extremely stupid people inhale it for a high and it is highly lethal. It freezes your neuro system. Should a well researched section on this be added warning people of the dangers?


We need a source for the uses... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.229.226.168 (talk) 21:14, 13 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] inhaling

i added a short section on inhalation dangers, i hope you smarties can find big words and the real names of the symptoms (thinks its cardiac arythmia) i just felt i needed to get the word out (revolution!!!1!11) since I almost once died from butane not knowing the dangers.

Certainly well intentioned recommendations, but IMHO most people understand that breathing stuff other than air is a bad idea. Otherwise every chemical article on a gas would require a warning. And the article on sledgehammers would require a warning about the dangers of hitting oneself on the head, etc.--Smokefoot 15:40, 21 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] LPG <-> Butane?

LPG contains mixtures of methane up to pentane, while butane gas jars contain quite pure butane. --Deryck C. 08:14, 29 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Boiling/Melting point?

Can somebody tell me where these two numbers come from? Because I've read several Material Safety Data Sheets and none reads those numbers. In fact they say that the melting and boiling point are not defined. I've changed the points to "Not defined", and will not change it back until someone gives me a straight answer! --The REAL Teol 16:52, 5 March 2007 (UTC)


The boiling and melting points of n-butane and isobutane are available in the 67th edition of the CRC as follows (celsius scale).

No. 3672 n-butane b.p.: -0.5, m.p.: -138. No. 3808 isobutane b.p.: -11.7, m.p.: -159.4

This issue came up (for me) as I have my students look up these values as part of a laboratory exercise. We have used the Aldrich Chemical Company's catalog in the past with mixed results, the data is not always reported. I imagine a company's MSDS will give similar results.

I have editted the physical data to reflect this information.--Doug Flournoy 17:26, 28 March 2007 (UTC)

Very good point. Such physical data is not always up to date or (especially in the case of the alkanes) easy to get hold of. The International Chemical Safety Cards quote −0.5 °C/−138 °C for butane and −12 °C/−160 °C for isobutane (2-methylpropane). Until we figure out the problem (which IMHO is due to old sources and contaminated samples), I suggest that we go with these values. Physchim62 (talk) 13:42, 29 March 2007 (UTC)
See also the NIST webbook [1][2] which lists individual data points with dates. Femto 14:51, 29 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Pressure release

If you had a container of pressurized liquid butane and then let out the pressure what would happen? It would start to boil after a while but at the moment you released the pressure would some immediately evaporate, or not. How long would it take to get to boiling point? Ozone 02:08, 24 March 2007 (UTC)

Such containers are commercially available, they are called cigarette lighters!
  • gaseous butane escapes
  • liquid butane evaporates to ensure the equilibrium of the vapour pressure
  • the remaining liquid butane is cooled by the need to transfer the enthalpy of vapourization to the butane which evaporates
  • this loss of heat is compensated by heat from the enviroment (eg, a smoker's hand)
as the boiling point of butane is only 4 °C, the thermodynamics of the changes are only usually noted in exam papers... Physchim62 (talk) 16:24, 28 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Butane Temperature

Do you guys think butane is hot enough to melt salt (sodium chloride salt)? I just got a portable butane stove and I was going to use it to melt some salt in a pyrex plat and make pure sodium. Does butane melt salt and will it get the dish hot enough (given time) to melt the salt? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 67.86.150.183 (talk) 01:03, 23 April 2007 (UTC).

[edit] Popular Culture

Do we really need the one pop culture reference from King of the Hill? Ubern00b 02:08, 30 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Butane orange

Is the orange color of butane cylinders some kind of standard? Where? --84.20.17.84 (talk) 16:20, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Erotic legends

Are the erotic legends associated to butane cylinder deliverers to the home worthy of mention? --84.20.17.84 (talk) 16:20, 4 January 2008 (UTC) == butane as a propellent in aerosols Is it true that butane is a greenhouse gas 10x worse than CO2? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.119.213.126 (talk) 21:10, 25 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Article to be renamed BUTANES

I propose that we should have a single article called Butanes, and then we shall be right. As it is, we are wrong. The two compounds, n-butane and i-butane are different, they are isomers, and what is the point of learning about isomers at school if we then ignore them? There is separate information on their volatilities and boiling points and vapour phase properties, for instance, so why be wrong, when we can be right? We are striving for respect.
I have two references for isobutane, both in Perry, J.H.(editor) Chem Engineers' Handbook 3rd edition (1950) I have no access to later edition. The properties of saturated i-butane and superheated i-butane on tables, are in Section 3 Physical and Chemical data on Table 223 and Table 224, page 264. The data were first published in 1938 (i.e. 70 years ago, i.e. not copyright)
The vapor pressure data of the pure compound in the same section on Table 7. have been originally collected and published by Stull, D.H. in Ind Eng.Chem. 39, 517 (1947) i.e. 60 years old. It is possible that the publishers' (McGraw-Hill Book Company, N-Y, Toronto-London) permission is needed.
What is the isomer composition of the material showing the properties in the databox?
LouisBB (talk) 23:04, 21 March 2008 (UTC)
I disagree with renaming the article. We already have separate articles for butane and isobutane as they are different compounds. While in a few cases it is common practice to lump all isomers together (e.g., xylenes), I don't think that's the case here. Maybe some cleanup here is needed and some information on isobutane that crept into this article should be moved out to its own article. --Itub (talk) 12:38, 25 March 2008 (UTC)