Alternatives for Conventional Alkane Solvents.

The studies described in this paper show that hydrocarbon oligomers are alternatives for low molecular weight alkane solvents. These oligomeric solvents are nontoxic, nonvolatile, and recyclable alternatives to heptane in thermomorphic solvent mixtures that use a polar solvent such as methanol, aqueous ethanol, or DMF or in biphasic mixtures that use acetonitrile. Regardless of which polar solvent is used, hydrocarbon oligomers like poly(α-olefin)s (PAOs) exhibit very low leaching into the polar phase.