Acetone

Some liquids help clean things.

This liquid is clear and has a strong smell. It can take off nail polish. It also cleans up paint and glue.

This liquid can catch fire easily. It can also turn into a gas quickly.

Our bodies make a tiny bit of it. It is found in our blood.

Many people use it at home. It is also used in big factories. It helps make many kinds of plastic.

Acetone is a clear liquid. It has a very strong smell. It can catch fire easily. This liquid is also volatile. This means it turns into a gas very quickly.

Many people use acetone at home. You might find it in nail polish remover. It can also thin out paint. It is a great solvent. A solvent is a liquid that can dissolve other things. Acetone can dissolve glue and many plastics.

Factories use huge amounts of acetone. They use it to make plastics. In 2010, the world made 6.7 million tonnes. Most of it comes from a way called the cumene process. This process uses benzene and propylene to make acetone.

Our bodies make acetone too. It is found in our blood and urine. It comes from the way our bodies use food. Some people make more of it. This can happen if they have a condition called diabetes. Doctors even use special diets to change how much acetone is in the blood. This helps some children with epilepsy.

Acetone is a clear liquid that has a very strong smell. It is also highly volatile, which means it turns into a gas very quickly. This liquid can catch fire easily. Scientists call it a ketone, and it is the smallest one.

Acetone is a great solvent. A solvent is a liquid that can dissolve other things. People use it at home to remove nail polish or thin out paint. It can even dissolve superglue before it gets hard.

Factories use acetone to make many important things. About one third of the world's acetone is used as a solvent. Another quarter is used to make methyl methacrylate. This is a building block for many types of plastics. About 20 percent of acetone is used to make bisphenol A. This chemical is used to make things like epoxy resins and polycarbonates.

Many different people helped us understand acetone over many years. In 1606, Andreas Libavius first made it by heating lead acetate. Later, in 1832, Jean-Baptiste Dumas and Justus von Liebig found its formula. In 1833, Antoine Bussy and Michel Chevreul helped name it. They added the suffix "-one" to the name of its parent acid. In 1865, August Kekulé finally showed its modern structure.

Most acetone is made through a way called the cumene process. This way uses benzene and propylene to make acetone and phenol. In 2010, the world produced about 6.7 million tonnes of acetone. The United States made 1.56 million tonnes that year. This was the highest amount of any country. Taiwan and China also made a lot of it.

Acetone is also part of our own bodies. Our bodies make small amounts of it naturally. It is found in our blood and our urine. It comes from the way our bodies use food for energy. Some people with diabetes make much more of it. Doctors sometimes use special diets to change acetone levels in the blood. This can help children who have a type of epilepsy.

Acetone is a colorless, highly volatile organic compound. It is also known as 2-propanone or dimethyl ketone. In the world of chemistry, it is classified as the smallest and simplest ketone. A ketone is a specific type of organic molecule. Acetone is famous for its pungent, characteristic odor. It is also very flammable and evaporates quickly. Because it can dissolve many other substances, it is a vital industrial solvent.

Chemists produce acetone through several different industrial methods. The most common method is called the cumene process. This process accounts for about 83% of all acetone production. In this method, benzene is alkylated with propylene to create cumene. This cumene is then oxidized by air. This reaction results in two products: acetone and phenol.

Other methods include the Wacker-Hoechst process, which uses the direct oxidation of propylene. Another way is the hydration of propylene to make 2-propanol, which is then oxidized. In the past, scientists used the dry distillation of acetates. During World War I, Chaim Weizmann developed a fermentation process using Clostridium acetobutylicum bacteria. This helped the British war effort by providing materials for Cordite.

Acetone serves many different roles in modern industry. About one third of the world's acetone is used directly as a solvent. A quarter of it is used to create acetone cyanohydrin. This chemical is a precursor to methyl methacrylate, a building block for plastics. Another 20% of acetone is used to synthesize bisphenol A. This substance is a key component in polycarbonates and epoxy resins. Acetone is also used to make methyl isobutyl alcohol and methyl isobutyl ketone. Furthermore, it is used as a safe way to transport acetylene. Acetone can dissolve about 250 liters of acetylene per liter of acetone.

Understanding acetone required centuries of scientific discovery. In 1606, Andreas Libavius first produced it via distillation. For a long time, it had many different names. People called it "spirit of Saturn" or "pyro-acetic spirit." In 1834, Carl Reichenbach called it "mesit." Later, in 1832, Jean-Baptiste Dumas and Justus von Liebig determined its empirical formula. In 1833, Antoine Bussy and Michel Chevreul created the modern name. They added the suffix "-one" to the stem of acetic acid. By 1865, August Kekulé published the modern structural formula. This helped scientists finally understand how the atoms were arranged.

Global production of acetone is massive. In 2010, the world produced about 6.7 million tonnes. The United States led the world with 1.56 million tonnes of capacity. Taiwan and China were also major producers. One company, INEOS Phenol, owns 17% of the world's capacity. They also own the largest production site in Beveren, Belgium. This site produces 420,000 tonnes every year. In the summer of 2011, the spot price in the U.S. was between 1100 and 1250 USD per tonne.

Acetone is also a natural part of biology. The human body produces it through normal metabolic processes. Small amounts are found naturally in human blood and urine. It is created through the decarboxylation of ketone bodies. Some dietary patterns, like high-fat or low-carbohydrate diets, can increase these levels. This state is known as ketosis. In certain medical conditions like diabetes, people may experience ketoacidosis. This is a dangerous increase in blood acidity. Interestingly, doctors use medical ketogenic diets to help children with treatment-resistant epilepsy. These diets increase ketone bodies to help suppress epileptic attacks.

Finally, acetone has unique chemical behaviors. It exhibits keto-enol tautomerism. This means the keto structure and the enol isomer exist in an equilibrium. In acetone vapor, only about 2.4% of molecules are in the enol form.

Acetone is also a weak Lewis base. It can form complexes with divalent metals. Under ultraviolet light, acetone will fluoresce. It can even be used to dissolve superglue or thin polyester resin. Because it is so useful, it remains a fundamental building block in organic chemistry.