Acetone and Ethyl Acetate in Commercial Nail Polish Removers: A Quantitative NMR Experiment Using an Internal Standard

Abstract

The qualitative and quantitative analysis of commercial nail polish removers is performed on a 60 MHz NMR spectrometer. After taking NMR spectra of the polish removers, students can make peak assignments for the known components of acetone and ethyl acetate. Using these spectra, students are also able to identify the unknown alcohol present in the remover as ethanol. Quantitative analysis of either the acetone or ethyl acetate in the nail polish removers is accomplished by comparing the analyte peak intensities with that of an internal standard. The system in which deuterated acetone is used as a solvent and methylene chloride as an internal standard gave precise results for both commercial removers and for standards prepared from pure acetone or an ethyl acetate/ethanol mixture. As recovery from the standards was approximately 96 - 98% of what was anticipated, the analysis of the commercial products is also believed to be accurate.