Anhydrous methanol can be prepared by refluxing methanol over magnesium
turnings (Caution: exothermic) followed by distillation. After this the
solvent can be stored over type 3A molecular sieves in septum sealed
bottles. However, for your application traces of water might still be
tolerated and you can probably just store your reagent grade solvent
over type 3A molecular sieves. The low molecular weight of methanol
requires the use of the smaller pore type 3A sieves instead of the more
common type 4A sieves used to dry other solvents.
Gary Valaskovic wrote:
>
> ABRFer's
>
> I am looking for a dessicant to remove residual (trace) water from methanol.
> Ideally the process needs to be (ESI) LC-MS compatible, that is I do not
> want to add additional background signal. (I need to make the methanol as
> dry as possible.) If anyone has some good suggestions/experience on a
> particular choice of dessicant please let me know.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Gary
>
> _______________________________________________________________
> Get Free Email and Do More On The Web. Visit http://www.msn.com
-- Richard T. Pon, University of Calgary Professor, Adjunct, Dept. of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology and Director, University Core DNA Services 3350 Hospital Drive N.W., Calgary, AB, Canada T2N 4N1 rtpon@ucalgary.ca; Office (403) 220-4225; Lab (403) 220-4277; Fax (403) 283-4907DNA synthesis and sequencing service inquiries may also be directed to DNALAB@ucalgary.ca