contact spray ingredient(s)

[clicliclic]

Hi,

what is the active ingredient for the removal of oxide and sulfide
layers that is found in standard contact cleaning sprays? If you put
some spray some onto white paper it will leave oily stains of a
reddish color.

Fifty years ago such an orange or red oily liquid used to be available
in small bottles, and just a small droplet was applied to a contact to
be cleaned.

Is the active ingredient an organic liquid of red color, or perhaps a
solid red chemical dissolved in an organic solvent? What is its name
or chemical formula?

Tia, Martin.

 

[clicliclic]

dplatt@radagast.org (Dave Platt) wrote in message news:<115tcuj8cm1331d@corp.supernews.com>...

So, it would not be surprising if the sprays to which you are
referring are a mixture of somewhat-purified oleic acid, with solvents
(e.g. various alcohols) and propellants (propane and/or carbon
dioxide).

And, as a followup... it looks as if it wouldn't be difficult or
expensive to experiment with this stuff to see if it's the real thing.
After a few minutes of searching on Google I see one supplier selling
oleic acid for under $14/gallon (purity not stated), and another
selling laboratory-grade for $24 per pint or $95 per gallon.

One could make a lot of contact cleaner with a gallon of this stuff

This is a lot of information and pointers! A liquid organic acid that
comes in different shades of orange, red, and brown fits my
observations and memories, and makes a lot sense besides.

According to my chemistry references, oleic acid, C18O2H34, has a
linear carbon chain of 18 atoms with one double bond in the very
middle and a COOH group at
one end. No wonder it looked oily with that chain length.

The Cramolin brand name nowadays seems to apply to a whole number
cleaning agents (solvents, detergents, lubricants), only one of them
being "Cramolin
Contaclean" (this too is formulated as a spray, I saw no other). The
German MSDS (Sicherheitsdatenblatt) of "Cramolin Contaclean" doesn't
disclose any active
ingredient(s) either. The solvents are unremarkable:
dimethyl-propyl-methane and 2-propanol. The propellant is CO2. They
also state a solvent content of 84.3% and a solid content of 6.5%.

The other day I had a spray can of "Kontakt 60" (which appears to be
the major brand of this kind of thing in Germany) that had started to
leak at the bottom seal. This also left a residue: a solidified puddle
of sticky brown goo that still allowed the bottle to be removed from
the shelf with moderate force. So either oleic acid polymerizes to
some extent (after all it does have a double bond) or there is some
other ingredient in addition. Anyway, the goo might help to contain
the oxide residues and keep them out of a contact's way. The goo did
readily dissolve in alcohol (i.e. ethanol).

I emptied the remaining contents of the can into a bottle and the
color of "Kontakt 60" turned out a much diluted wine red.

Martin.

 

[clicliclic]

John Woodgate <jmw@jmwa.demon.co.uk> wrote in message news:<5ncqhzpfbBYCFwHn@jmwa.demon.co.uk>...

clicliclic <clicliclic@freenet.de> wrote (in
8b226cfb.0504150907.38e9e77d@posting.google.com&gt about 'contact spray
ingredient(s)', on Fri, 15 Apr 2005:
So either oleic acid polymerizes to some extent (after all it does
have a double bond)

I think it oxidizes rather than polymerizes. It's a derivative of a
'semi-drying oil', although not a very marked one.

Thanks for pointing out the possible relation with the drying of
linseed oil (used for oil paints and as varnish) and similar oils.
However, although (semi-)drying oils harden through oxidization, the
actual mechanism is polymerization through the addition of -O-O-
oxygen bridges between formerly doubly bound atoms on different carbon
chains.

Linseed oil is essentially an ester of glycerine with linoleic acid
(C18O2H32) and linolenic acid (C18O2H30), which differ from oleic acid
(the suspected contact spray agent) by possessing two and three double
bonds, respectively, rather than just one. Oleic acid should therefore
be much harder to (oxidize and) polymerize.

I am no chemist, and all this is taken from my reference on organic
chemistry!

Martin.