Test strips...

[Externet]

Hi.  I know peanuts about this; that is why am here.

Is there test strips that show if it is ethanol, or methanol, or some other compounds when distilling alcohols ?

What sorts of identifications/concentrations are test strips made for ?  pH and nothing else ?  What about salinity ?  Glucose ? ...?

[exchemist]

10 minutes ago, Externet said:

Hi.  I know peanuts about this; that is why am here.

Is there test strips that show if it is ethanol, or methanol, or some other compounds when distilling alcohols ?

What sorts of identifications/concentrations are test strips made for ?  pH and nothing else ?  What about salinity ?  Glucose ? ...?

There are lots, for instance as shown here:https://www.sigmaaldrich.com/GB/en/products/analytical-chemistry/photometry-and-rapid-chemical-testing/test-strips-papers-and-readers

I don’t know of one for discriminating between alcohols, but there is one for glucose, which uses a meter to detect the amount of gluconic acid generated by reaction with blood glucose.

[chenbeier]

No for alcohol. But alcohol can be determined by testtube with chromium sulfuric acid. Used in tubes used by police to determine alcohol in breathing air from drunken drivers. Methanol and ethanol can divided by boric acid. First one gives boric methyl ester what burns in green flame. The Ethyl ester is only made up by adding sulfuric acid.

Other test Strips are used for pH, Sulfide (lead acetate paper), oxidisers (potassium iodide starchpaper). Glucose in urine for diabetic,

Edited September 2, 2022 by chenbeier

[Sensei]

1 hour ago, Externet said:

Is there test strips that show if it is ethanol, or methanol, or some other compounds when distilling alcohols ?

Methanol has a different boiling point (~ 64.7 °C) than ethanol (~ 78.23 °C), so when you distill a mixture of the two, methanol goes first.

When I distilled ~ 500 mL of mash, the first 5-10 mL of product was collected and treated as "trash" (burned later as fuel, so don't throw it away, it can still be used).

You should have equipment with a thermometer:

Edited September 2, 2022 by Sensei