What color does drinking alcohol burn. How to distinguish methyl alcohol from ethyl alcohol at home

In mid-December 2016, the largest methyl hydrate poisoning in post-Soviet history occurred in the Irkutsk region. More than 70 people became victims of the tragedy, and the event itself produced a major international resonance. In connection with the incident, interest has greatly increased in how to distinguish methyl alcohol from ethyl alcohol under normal conditions.

Where does methanol come from in alcohol?

Almost all alcoholic beverages with a large "degree" contain not only drinking ethyl alcohol C2H5OH , but also the so-called woody - CH 3 OH :

• Its share does not exceed 10% for each liter of quality drink. It chemically binds to ethanol and does not lead to any health hazard. However, in artisanal conditions, the production technology can be violated, and the proportion of “non-drinkable” liquid can be many times exceeded;
• The reason for the appearance may be not only a violation of the distillation process. Cunning counterfeiters add cheaper toxic substances to increase the strength of the final product;
• It is not possible to determine the content of toxic fractions by taste and smell. Sometimes "singed" vodka is different more cloudy consistency. But with colored drinks, everything is much more complicated, so a series of tests will have to be carried out.

How to determine methyl alcohol at home?

Popular methods for determining the quality of alcohol-containing products include:

1. Use of potato wedges. Only freshly peeled fruit is suitable for the test. When lowering a vegetable into a poisonous methyl hydrate it takes on a reddish tint. If high-quality alcohol is poured into the container, but fit for drinking, then the color of the potato will hardly change;
2. Find a short piece of copper wire and heat it for a minute over low heat. If you lower the wire into methanol, then a sharp, sharp and suffocating smell of gas will rush into your nose. methanal;
3. Add a small amount of potassium permanganate to a glass, pour alcohol and set it on fire. If there is CH 3 OH in the container, then the result will be the same caustic gas as in the previous experiment;
4. Generously moisten a piece of cotton wool in the liquid, bring it to a burning match and put it out immediately. A small but discernible volume of the same gas, methanal, will be released.

In this video, technologist Arkady Pilotov will show the reaction of methyl alcohol to manganese crystals, what will happen:

How does methyl alcohol burn?

One of the most popular ways to calculate methyl alcohol is combustion reaction:

• During combustion, methanol combines in proportions of 2 to 3 with an oxygen molecule. The result of the transformation is carbon dioxide and water (moreover, the second substance is formed twice as much);
• A rather large amount of heat is generated: the specific heat of combustion is 22.7 MJ / kg (only 2 times less than that of gasoline);
• To carry out the test, it is not necessary to set fire to glasses filled to the brim. An ordinary piece of paper soaked in liquid is enough;
• The flame will have a greenish tint. For comparison, in ethanol, the color of the flames will be exclusively blue;
• However, the color of the flame cannot be used as reliable evidence: technical fluid additives can change color beyond recognition. So, selenium, lead and arsenic give a blue tint. Therefore, to identify the poison, it is better to use several methods at once.

How to determine methyl alcohol in alcohol?

The risk of poisoning with low-quality alcohol arises not only when buying moonshine from unfamiliar personalities. You need to be on the alert even when purchasing an expensive branded drink in a large retail chain. It is not uncommon for swill made in artisanal conditions to be found on the shelves of ordinary stores under an expensive label.

Methanol in such a product is rarely contained in its pure form. It is usually mixed with ethanol in different proportions, so the task of detecting toxins becomes much more difficult:

• The combustion test no longer gives accurate data and can even be misleading;
• The method using potassium permanganate is much more reliable: even a pinch of this substance added to methanol will cause a violent reaction with the release of gas bubbles;
• The boiling point is also an indicator: with the addition of even a small amount of industrial alcohol, it will be about 65 degrees (almost 20 degrees lower than that of high-quality alcohol).

None of these tests are completely accurate. Blends and additives to expensive counterfeit products can be quite sophisticated. That's why reliable information can only be obtained in the laboratory.

To protect your health from low-quality liquor, you need to be careful already in the process of acquiring it:

• Any substance to be ingested should be purchased exclusively in reliable and trustworthy points of sale, large chain super and hypermarkets. As such, there can be both serious federal chains and branded stores of local alcoholic beverage producers;
• The cork on the container should not show signs of opening. You need to make sure that the tightness is not violated;
• It is obligatory to have excise stamps with protection against forgery;
• On the reverse side, information about the manufacturer and importer is indicated;
• The price should correspond to the average market. Too low cost of a famous foreign brand can serve as an indirect confirmation of counterfeit;
• Most manufacturers take additional security measures: seal the cork in a plastic "cocoon", make unique and hard-to-reproduce labels, etc. Pay attention to this.

Symptoms of methanol poisoning

Even if the drink was bought in the right place and passed all the tests for the content of toxic substances, the danger of poisoning remains.

The first signs of intoxication can make themselves felt 12 hours after drinking:

• Strong headache;
• breathing problems;
• Feeling of fatigue and loss of strength, apathy;
• Pain in the region of the stomach and lower back;
• Nausea and vomiting.

At first, these symptoms are similar to an overdose of an ordinary quality product. But in the case of methyl hydrate, the visual and nervous systems are very quickly affected.

When particularly painful and pronounced symptoms are detected a visit to the doctor is mandatory. Severe intoxication occurs with the use of 10 milliliters of poison, and a dose three times greater is enough for a lethal outcome.

It is not worth pouring out a dangerous substance: it will be useful both for doctors to identify poisonous substances and for law enforcement agencies.

Every year, with unenviable regularity, Russia is shaken by shocking news about mass deaths from low-quality liquor. Even if they start teaching at school how to distinguish methyl alcohol from ethyl alcohol, this will not change the situation. Only with an increase in the culture of consumption of strong drinks can we hope to resolve this problem.

Experiment: the difference between methyl and ethyl alcohol

In this video, technologist, chemist Vladimir Barinov will talk about all the known methods for determining methyl alcohol at home:

Industrial alcohol poisoning is one of the most severe. Even with the use of a small amount of this substance, the human body receives serious poisoning, which often leads to death. Now we will figure out how to distinguish methanol from ethanol. The events that took place in the Czech Republic, in which several thousand people were poisoned from counterfeit alcohol, make this information extremely relevant and very important.

The main problem is the lack of differences in taste, color and smell of edible alcohol and methyl alcohol, which is also called technical. This is the main cause of poisoning. Most often, ethanol is found in a variety of household chemicals. However, there are times when methyl alcohol is sold under the guise of medical or food.

Options for determining methyl alcohol

Origin. Buy alcoholic beverages only in specialized stores whose reputation you are sure of. In this case, the probability of stumbling upon counterfeit alcohol is much less than when buying in stalls and other dubious places.

Fire. The easiest way to check what kind of alcohol you are dealing with is to set it on fire. After the substance has ignited, notice the color of the fire. Ethanol will have a blue fire, while methanol will have a green fire.

potato test with potatoes? Take a small piece of a raw potato and drop it for a couple of hours in the alcohol you are testing. In the event that the potato changes its color and acquires a pinkish tint, you have technical alcohol in front of you. If the vegetable does not change its color, there is ethyl alcohol in the container.

Formaldehyde method. This method is considered perhaps the most reliable. It is necessary to take a copper wire and glow it on a stove or on another source of fire. Then, with a hot edge, it must be lowered into a bottle of alcohol. A specific smell that has appeared indicates that you have technical alcohol in front of you. Ethyl alcohol, unlike methanol, should not emit any odor upon contact with the wire.

Symptoms and consequences

Symptoms that occur with methanol poisoning:

• painful breathing;
• Strong headache;
• pain in the abdomen and lower back;
• profuse vomiting;
• general malaise of the body;

It should be noted that the first symptoms of technical alcohol poisoning are similar to simple alcohol poisoning. However, in the case of methanol, the consequences will be comparable to a disaster. It very quickly destroys vision, the nervous system and blood vessels. Severe poisoning occurs when using only 5 - 10 ml of the substance. Death occurs from 30 or more milliliters of the substance.

Alcohol at the chemical level is represented by a mixture with a variety of additives. Ethanol can be medical, drinking and food, it can be consumed orally. Methyl alcohol is used to create drugs that poison the body. Therefore, it is important to know how to distinguish methanol from ethyl alcohol.

The danger of methyl alcohol

- a depressant that is used to produce alcohol. This substance has an intoxicating effect. It is created as a result of the processing of liquids subjected to fermentation. It turns out concentrated alcohol, which is diluted with water when preparing alcohol in order to prevent burns of the esophagus and oral cavity.

The greatest health hazard is methyl alcohol, which is similar in smell and taste to ethyl alcohol. Often a person purchases alcohol containing methanol, being sure that this is a quality drink. The consequence of such a mistake is a powerful intoxication, which can lead to death.

Methyl alcohol- a poison for the human body, which is extracted from methane, lignin, formic acid. The scope of the toxic substance is industrial production (creation of dyes, artificial silk, technical solutions). Previously, the toxin was obtained from sawdust, and the alcohol was called wood.

Important! After drinking 50 grams of alcohol containing methanol, symptoms of severe intoxication are recorded.

The toxic substance affects the retina and nerve of the eye, initiating blindness when 5 ml of alcohol is taken. The maximum concentration of poison is fixed in the brain, lungs, fatty tissue, eyeballs.

It is forbidden to produce alcohol based on industrial alcohol, but this ban does not stop producers of surrogate drinks. As a result of the use of methanol, people die in 60% of cases among fatal intoxications.

Symptoms of methanol poisoning

Immediately after taking a toxic substance, the following symptoms are recorded:

• vomiting reflex;
• severe pain in the epigastric region;
• visual disturbance;
• dizziness, headache;
• excessive salivation;
• increase, then a rapid decrease in blood pressure values.

The use of alcohol containing methyl alcohol causes the following pathologies:

• damage to the nervous system;
• inflammation of the optic nerve leading to blindness;
• dysfunction of metabolic processes, initiating the destruction of protein cells;
• diseases of the urinary system.

If measures were not taken to distinguish methanol from ethanol, and the victim did not seek medical help, then severe complications develop:

• blindness sets in;
• there is a sharp pain in the limbs;
• a mild degree of alcoholic coma develops: urge to vomit, speech skills are disturbed, temperature decrease, uncontrolled urination.

Accompanied by dilated pupils, edema of the eyelids, respiratory failure, the appearance of a convulsive syndrome. The onset of irreparable changes depends on the amount of methyl alcohol taken.

Methods for detecting an alcohol species

Ethyl alcohol production

Food and technical alcohol have a similar taste, smell, color. But ethanol has a pungent odor while methanol has a neutral odor. Therefore, when fixing an unusual property of a liquid, one should abandon the consumption of suspicious alcohol.

There are several methods to help distinguish drinking alcohol from methanol at home. Each option is reliable and shows accurate results, provided that the verification experiment is carried out correctly. But it should be understood that if alcohol contains a small concentration of methanol, then testing will be useless.

How to distinguish methyl from ethyl by ignition

The easiest and fastest way to help distinguish methanol from ethanol is to ignite the solution. Ethyl alcohol has a blue flame, methyl alcohol has a green flame.

This method does not give full confidence in the result, since the ethanol flame becomes greenish when boric acid is added.

Reaction with potatoes

It is necessary to place the peeled potatoes in a container with alcohol. To conduct the experiment, the potato tuber must be kept in alcohol for two hours. Due to a change in the color of the vegetable, it is possible to identify the alcohol variety: pink color indicates technical alcohol. Potato starch is not released when the vegetable is in food alcohol, the solution does not become cloudy.

Reaction with baking soda

Add a little baking soda to the alcoholic drink to be tested and mix. In ethanol, a yellow insoluble precipitate forms, in methanol, soda dissolves, and the solution becomes transparent.

Reaction with potassium permanganate

To distinguish edible alcohol from technical alcohol, add potassium permanganate to the solution and heat the mixture. If there is no reaction, then it is good alcohol. If the liquid hisses and smells of formalin, it can be argued that this is methyl alcohol.

For the experiment, potassium permanganate and a container for heating are required. The sequence of actions is as follows:

• you need to pour 50 ml of alcohol into a container;
• dilute 0.2 g of potassium permanganate in 2 ml of distilled water;
• heat alcohol to 18 degrees and pour the resulting manganese solution into it, mix.

Next, you need to observe the change in the color of the solution, noting the time. The longer the bleaching process lasts, the better the quality of the product. A good result is a time span of 10 minutes.

Copper wire

It is necessary to heat a sample of wire white with fire, then dip it into the alcohol under study. After removing the wire, you need to study the aroma of fumes. In the presence of a distinct smell of formalin, it can be argued that toxic methanol has decomposed.

Pharmacy iodine

When a few drops of the solution are added to methanol, iodine will completely dissolve; in food alcohol, the medicine settles to the bottom in the form of yellow flakes.

Symptoms of methanol and ethanol poisoning

Intoxication with ethanol and methanol proceeds differently, but is characterized by similar symptoms. In case of poisoning with food alcohol, the victim feels an excruciating headache, the urge to vomit, and there is a violation of the stool. When intoxicated with industrial alcohol, the following symptoms are recorded:

The classic sign of methyl alcohol poisoning is blurred vision, accompanied by dilated pupils and photophobia.

The main danger lies in the late manifestation of symptoms of intoxication - 10 hours after drinking low-quality alcohol.

First aid for poisoning

The human body is not adapted to neutralize and remove methanol decay products. Therapeutic measures are to neutralize a dangerous toxin. Self-treatment after poisoning with technical alcohol is impossible.

Remember! Death after drinking alcohol containing methanol can occur within a few hours.

Food alcohol is the best methanol antidote. This explains the need for an ethanol drip procedure, for which the doctor calculates the rate of administration and the dosage of the solution. Sometimes such procedures worsen the patient's condition.

First aid measures after methanol intoxication include:

• Cleansing the stomach. It is necessary to dilute a little potassium permanganate in a liter of warm water. Then you need to drink a pink liquid in one gulp, provoking a gag reflex.
• The use of 100 ml of ethanol, which contributes to the rapid removal of poisons.

To cleanse the stomach, potassium permanganate is diluted in a liter of warm water.

In case of acute intoxication, hemodialysis is carried out in a medical institution. Hospitalization of the victim is not required in all cases. Poisonous alcohol is absorbed into the blood slowly, for a certain time, remaining in the gastrointestinal tract. This makes it possible to wash the stomach, avoiding serious consequences.

You should be aware that the use of alcohol containing methanol leads to severe disorders in many organs and systems. The victim may fall into a coma, go blind, and kidney function is impaired. If you want to drink, you must choose high-quality alcoholic beverages. This will save a person from accidental poisoning.

Methyl alcohol poisoning is a very dangerous disease that can lead to very serious consequences and even death. Methyl negatively affects the human nervous system, the heart, liver and other organs.. In case of poisoning, they need to urgently provide proper medical care, otherwise the person may die. It is very important to be able to distinguish methyl from ethyl, since methyl alcohol cannot be taken orally.

The difference between the effects of methyl and ethyl alcohol on the body

Ethyl alcohol, or ethanol, is a depressant that is added to alcoholic beverages. Because of this, they have an intoxicating effect. Ethyl alcohol is medical and food, that is, it is safe for human health in a small amount.. True, with prolonged use of alcohol based on ethanol, dependence on it is formed.

Ethanol is obtained by distillation of a fermented solution. It turns out alcohol of high concentration, but before use it must be diluted with water, otherwise a burn of the oral mucosa and esophagus is possible. You can get natural moonshine at home, using a special moonshine still.

Homemade alcohol tastes no different from the purchased one. But subject to all the technologies for its manufacture, the quality of the resulting moonshine is very high. Therefore, many recommend preparing alcoholic beverages on their own.

Methyl alcohol, or methanol, is a monoatomic substance that is a poison to the human body. It is extracted from formic acid, lignin and wood. It is used in the industrial field as a solvent for paints. In addition, it is applied in the formaldehyde production process. Methanol is absorbed much more slowly than ethanol, therefore, in the process of oxidation, a number of extremely toxic substances are formed in the body.

That is why methanol depresses the nervous system, affects the retina. Therefore, people often go blind as a result of drinking low-quality alcohol. The use of methyl alcohol instead of ethyl alcohol can lead to serious poisoning. Even small doses lead to death.

How to independently distinguish methyl from ethyl

The fact is that it is rather problematic to distinguish methyl alcohol from ethyl alcohol, since they have the same color, taste and smell. True, ethanol has a more pronounced aroma, while methyl alcohol is almost neutral. So if, after sniffing the liquid, it seems to you that the smell is unusual, it is better not to drink such alcohol. Therefore, you need to check alcohol before you drink it. There are several basic ways to do this.

Method 1. Ignite the liquid

This is the simplest method to determine the quality of an alcoholic beverage. To do this, a small amount of liquid is poured into a saucer and alcohol is set on fire.

You can also take a cotton swab, soak it in alcohol and set it on fire. Wherein ethanol will burn with a blue flame, but methanol will burn with green.

Although it must be borne in mind that the reaction appears only if the methyl alcohol is pure, without various impurities of additives.

Method 2. Use potatoes

You can also check the quality of alcohol with the help of potatoes. To do this, one medium-sized potato is peeled, and then poured with alcohol. The amount of alcohol should be such that it completely covers the surface of the vegetable. Potatoes will not affect the taste of alcohol in any way, so they can be consumed if they pass the test.

If after a few hours it did not change color, it means that it was in edible ethyl alcohol. It usually turns pink in methanol.. In addition, the alcohol itself should not change color either. In natural alcohol, starch is not released from potatoes, but in methanol, its particles enter the liquid. As a result, she becomes cloudy.

Method 3. Heating

To determine what alcohol is in front of you, you need to boil the liquid. To do this, pour about 200 ml of alcohol into a dish that can be heated, and put it on fire. During the procedure, it is necessary to use a thermometer, since it is necessary to measure at what temperature boiling will begin. For ethanol - 80 degrees, and for methyl alcohol - only 60.

Method 4. Reaction to potassium permanganate and soda

Potassium permanganate or potassium permanganate is an oxidizing agent that does not affect food alcohol. Therefore, when it is added to ethanol, no reaction will occur during the heating of the mixture. But if it's methanol, the liquid will start to sizzle. In this case, a strong smell of formalin will appear. After all, methanol is oxidized to formaldehyde, and ethanol to acetaldehyde. Instead of potassium permanganate, you can use any other oxidizing agent.

Baking soda is also added to the liquid. After that, the solution is stirred. In food alcohol, an insoluble yellow precipitate should appear, which occurs during the reaction of ethanol and iodine. But in methyl alcohol, soda will completely dissolve and the liquid will become transparent.

Method 5. Formaldehyde test

It is believed that the most reliable way to determine methanol in alcohol is a formaldehyde test. For its implementation, they take a thin copper wire and heat it on fire. After that, they are immersed in alcohol. Then you need to smell it: if there is a strong smell of formalin, you cannot drink such a drink. After all, ethanol, when reacting with copper wire, emits the smell of apple cider vinegar.

Method 6. Lang's test

To check the quality of the alcohol consumed, you can conduct the so-called Lang test. Research can be done at home. For this:

• you need to take 50 ml of alcohol and pour it into a container that can be heated .;
• then 0.2 g of potassium permanganate is diluted in 2 ml of distilled water.
• alcohol is heated to 18 degrees, and then a solution of potassium permanganate is poured into it. The resulting mixture must be well mixed.

Now you need to detect the time during which the color of the mixture will change its color from purple to pink. The longer this lasts, the higher the quality of the tested alcohol. A result is considered normal if the discoloration of alcohol lasted at least 10 minutes..

The main thing is to buy alcoholic beverages only in trusted places. It is better to buy it in stores, and not from the hands of people. In this case, the risk of accidental use of methanol is reduced significantly. Usually methyl alcohol is cheaper, although some sellers may pass it off as ethanol.

But it must be borne in mind that such methods are effective only if the alcohol contains a high concentration of methanol - more than half of the total volume. Therefore, if there is little methyl in alcohol or it contains impurities, then it is almost impossible to determine its presence in alcohol at home.

Therefore, one should not think that the experiments described above allow one to be 100% sure of the quality of the product used. Indeed, in alcoholic beverages, pure ethanol masks methanol additives. Therefore, if there is doubt about the quality and origin of an alcoholic beverage, it is better not to drink it.

Pure methanol is a very dangerous poison for humans. Just 50 grams leads to blindness. The lethal concentration of poisonous alcohol in the body is above 100 grams.. And even if a person remains alive, then his sight is unlikely to return to him.

Symptoms of methanol and ethanol poisoning

Poisoning with ethyl and methyl alcohol is distinguished by the symptoms of intoxication, as well as its course. For example, when poisoned with ethyl alcohol, a person has a headache and dizziness, he is sick, diarrhea or constipation is possible. In addition, for a while there is an aversion to food. In this case, the repeated use of alcoholic beverages is possible only a few days after intoxication, since the smell of alcohol causes a gag reflex. In case of methanol poisoning, the following symptoms appear:

• headache is sharp and sudden, then goes away, then reappears;
• it becomes difficult for a person to breathe, there is severe pain in the chest area;
• he experiences general malaise, weakness and lethargy;
• there is severe pain in the abdomen.

Visual impairment is specific. Objects appear fuzzy and blurry. There is photophobia, while the pupils are dilated.

And although the symptoms of intoxication with methyl and ethyl alcohol are similar, they differ in severity. In the first case, poisoning is more acute and is extremely serious, leading to very serious consequences.

First aid

Methyl alcohol is a very dangerous product for the human body. If for some reason a person drank it, an urgent need to call a doctor at home. In the meantime, he arrives, it is recommended to provide first aid to the patient:

1. Immediately you need to clear the stomach. Good methyl poisonous alcohol is slowly absorbed into the blood, and remains in the gastrointestinal tract for some time. Therefore, with timely washing, complications can be avoided. For washing, you need to add a few crystals of potassium permanganate to a liter of warm water so that the resulting solution has a pink tint. It must be drunk in one gulp, which should provoke a gag reflex.
2. You also need to drink about 50-100 ml of ethanol. Due to this, the poison will be removed from the body faster.
3. If the poisoning is very acute, it is necessary to carry out hemodialysis. However, it is impossible to perform the procedure at home, so you should wait for the doctors.

The doctor may prescribe hospitalization of the patient or recommend treatment at home. One way or another, therapy should not be postponed, since death from taking methyl alcohol can occur in a few hours.

After intoxication with methyl alcohol, the consequences for a person can be extremely severe. For example, there is a syndrome of prolonged squeezing. In this case a person falls into a coma for a while, as a result of which muscle tissue is destroyed. In addition, the work of the kidneys is disrupted. Due to the transferred coma, heart and respiratory failure appears.

It must be remembered that even accidental use of methyl can lead to serious complications. Therefore, one should not drink it consciously. It is from the use of low-quality vodka that people who abuse alcohol most often die. After all, the lethal dose of methanol for humans is only 100 ml.

26.12.2016 23:23

Tragedies in Norilsk..75 deaths..
From this .. pack of "baboon" idlers, who call themselves government officials, preoccupied with their rank swarms, spitting on the life of the population, from collecting tribute from which they live, there is only one reaction - to ban the sale of alcohol-containing substances. For a month. Expected reaction.
By type - how to do something to do nothing.

I give practical advice:
And best of all - do not drink alcohol!
________________________________________________

How to distinguish ethyl alcohol from methyl
Finding low-quality alcohol in a container and drinking it is not so bad. It is much more terrible to use methyl alcohol instead of ethyl alcohol. It is very difficult to distinguish them by eye, which leads to frequent poisoning. Methanol is the strongest poison that adversely affects the nervous and vascular systems, as well as vision. If a person survives, he often remains blind. Taking methyl alcohol causes lethargy, headache, general malaise, pain in the lower back and abdomen. Possible loss of consciousness. Ingestion of 30 to 100 ml of methanol is fatal.

Ethyl and methyl alcohol are exactly the same in taste, smell and color, so it will be quite difficult for an ordinary person to distinguish them. There are several methods to determine what is in front of you - ethanol and methanol. To determine the quality of alcohol, you can try lighting the liquid.

1. Follow the color of the fire. If alcohol burns with a blue flame, then most likely you have ethanol in front of you. Methyl alcohol blazes green.

2. The folk method includes a sample using potatoes. Peel raw potatoes and toss a small wedge into a bowl. After a few hours, it may change its color. If it turns pink, the alcohol being tested is methanol. In ethyl alcohol, potatoes practically do not change color.

3. One of the most reliable ways to check the chemical identity of alcohol is a formaldehyde test. Take a copper wire and heat it up on a fire. Then dip it into the liquid. Methanol will give off a strong, unpleasant odor of formaldehyde.
Ethanol in such cases is practically odorless or smells of a faint aroma of apples.
Similar verification methods are also used. Moisten a cotton ball with alcohol, set it on fire and put it out sharply. You can also add potassium permanganate to the liquid and set it on fire. Based on the above outgoing odors, determine if the alcohol belongs to the ethanol or methanol group.

How to distinguish methanol from ethanol
Externally, methanol (technical alcohol) is very similar to ethyl alcohol. It has approximately the same density and refractive index (the ability to refract the sun's rays). It has the same smell and color. In laboratory conditions, distinguishing methanol from ethanol will not be much there. At home, this is more difficult to do. However, there are several ways to distinguish ethyl alcohol from methyl alcohol without sophisticated equipment.

You will need
- metal container (mug, Turk, etc.),
- copper wire,
- gas burner (a household gas stove is suitable),
- thermometer,
- transparent dishes (glass),
- potassium permanganate.
Instruction

First way.
1. Place a metal container with the test liquid on a burning gas burner (stove).
2. Measure with a thermometer the temperature at which the liquid begins to boil. Methanol boils at about 64°C, ethanol at about 78°C.

The second way.
1. Twist a small spiral from copper wire. This is necessary to increase the contact surface of copper and the test liquid.
2. Heat the copper wire white, and preferably black: this is the degree of heat when copper oxide begins to form on the surface of the wire.
3. Dip the hot wire into the prepared container with the liquid to be tested.
4. Smell: if the aroma of rotten apples appears, this is ethanol. If there is a sharp, unpleasant and irritating odor to the mucous membrane, this is methanol.

The third way.
1.Pour the liquid to be tested into a transparent container.
2. Add a little potassium permanganate (potassium permanganate) to the test liquid.
3. If gas bubbles appear in the liquid, this is methanol. If there are no bubbles and it smells like vinegar, it's ethanol.

Helpful advice
Ethanol can also be distinguished from methanol using the iodoform reaction: when iodine, alkali (sodium hydroxide), ethyl alcohol and water heated to 50 ° C are mixed, a yellow precipitate forms - iodoform. Methanol does not give such a reaction.

The bubbles released during the interaction of methanol with potassium permanganate are carbon dioxide. And when ethanol is oxidized with potassium permanganate, there are no gas emissions - acetic acid is formed. This is used in the purification of ethanol from methyl alcohol impurities.