Acetone
Properties
| State | Liquid (volatile with sweet, pungent odor) |
| Color | Colorless |
| Solubility | Miscible with water and most organic solvents |
| Melting Point | -94.7°C |
| Boiling Point | 56.05°C |
About Acetone
Acetone is the simplest ketone — a carbonyl flanked by two methyl groups — and it earns its place in every chemistry lab because it's the rare solvent that dissolves both polar and moderately nonpolar compounds while evaporating fast enough to clear glassware in a single rinse. The boiling point sits at 56 °C, low enough that a quick warm-water bath drives it off completely; the dielectric constant (~21) is high enough to dissolve many salts; and it's miscible with water, ether, ethanol, and most chlorinated solvents in any ratio. Those properties are what make it the default rinse solvent for drying glassware after an aqueous wash. Industrially, most acetone comes out of the cumene process as a co-product with phenol — for every two moles of phenol produced, one mole of acetone falls out, which is why acetone supply is tied to phenol demand and prices move in lockstep. The biggest downstream uses are methyl methacrylate (the Plexiglas monomer) and bisphenol A (used to make polycarbonate and epoxy resins), both made by reacting acetone with other building blocks. Biologically, your body produces it in small amounts as a fat-metabolism byproduct; in uncontrolled type-1 diabetes the concentration rises high enough to be detectable on the breath as a sweet, fruity smell, which is the diagnostic finding called diabetic ketoacidosis.
Where you'll encounter it
If you've ever used nail polish remover, you've used acetone — that's the formulation it's known for outside of chemistry, and the reason it works so well on nail lacquer is the same reason it works in the lab: small molecule, polar carbonyl, fast evaporation. Inside a chemistry building, it's the wash bottle solvent for glassware drying, the standard acceptor in aldol condensations, and the carbonyl-protection target when you're making a dimethyl ketal of a 1,2- or 1,3-diol. It's also the solvent in many NMR sample preparations as the deuterated form acetone-d6, which gives a clean residual solvent peak at 2.05 ppm.
Common Uses
- Default rinse solvent for drying glassware in chemistry labs
- Feedstock for methyl methacrylate and bisphenol A synthesis
- Solvent for resins, varnishes, and adhesives
- Standard ketone substrate for aldol and protecting-group chemistry
- Acetone-d6 NMR solvent for sample preparation
Safety Information
Highly flammable, with a flash point of -20 °C — vapor will ignite from a spark or static discharge at room temperature, so keep it well clear of Bunsen burners and open flames. Vapor concentrations above ~250 ppm cause headache and dizziness; at higher concentrations the central nervous system effects become more pronounced. Skin contact defats the surface but isn't acutely toxic. GHS pictograms: GHS02 (flammable), GHS07 (irritant). Use in a fume hood or well-ventilated area.
This safety summary is for educational reference only and may not be complete. It is not a substitute for Safety Data Sheets (SDS), medical advice, or professional chemical safety guidance. Always consult appropriate SDS and qualified professionals before handling chemicals. We deliberately do not publish occupational exposure limits or other regulatory thresholds: those values are revised over time and differ between jurisdictions, so the only correct source is the current SDS and the regulations that apply where you work.