Carbon tetrachloride is a colorless non-
flammable chemical once used as a
paint thinner and was once used as solvent for fats and oils, which must be why it was good at dissolving paints. It was used as a cleaning
fluid or
fire extinguisher. However it was soon discovered that it could cause
cancer and thus was never used again for any
paint thinners or any kind of
solvents. For anybody interested its
chemical formula is:
CCl4
Its
vapor pressure is 91.0
mmHg (as in the higher a
solvent's
vapor pressure, the faster it can
vaporize from a
liquid into a
gas.
Solvents with a high
vapor pressure are dangerous because they are
flammable and their vapors
ignite easily.) It doesn't have a
flash point unlike most solvents (a
flash point is the
temperature at which a chemical
ignites). Its
American threshold limit value is 5
ppm (parts per million). This is extremely bad since the
American government doesn't approve of anybody breathing in a mere 5
ppm (as in 0.0005% of it in the
air) of this stuff, since it is highly suspect as a
cancer causing agent. Some of
Carbon tetrachloride's
synonyms are
tetrachloromethane and
perchloromethane.