Perchloroethylene
The solvent that made dry cleaning an industry, named as such in the first line of its own hazard sheet — and classed as a carcinogen in the same banner.
What not to do
Perchloroethylene is unsafe on Aluminium
Unsafe
Do not do this. The risk is established, and it is described below.
Precautions
- Ventilate the area
- Wear gloves
- Consider professional help
Why we say this
Strongly supported
A regulator naming the metal and the word violently.
Sources
Right to Know Hazardous Substance Fact Sheet: Tetrachloroethylene (RTK 1810)
New Jersey Department of Health, 2011 · Government or regulator
Relied on for: That tetrachloroethylene reacts violently with finely dispersed or finely divided metals including aluminium. (states this directly)
Verification: a person has read the passage relied on.
Read on — The 'Description and Use' block and the 'Handling and Storage' reactivity list. Supports the claim as stated. Establishes what professional dry cleaning has historically used, which lets the catalogue explain the difference between a solvent process and a water one without hand-waving. It does NOT become a domestic recommendation: the substance is a carcinogen and the record says so first.
Last reviewed by a person on .
Precautions
- Ventilate the area
- Consider professional help
- Keep away from children and pets
In detail
Perchloroethylene is what the phrase dry cleaning has meant for most of a century, and the catalogue registers it so that a care label can be explained as a PROCESS rather than repeated as an instruction. The regulator's description is a clear, colourless liquid with a sweet ether-like odour, used as a dry cleaning solvent, heat transfer medium, degreaser, solvent and drying agent for metals. Dry cleaning is not dry — it is cleaning in a non-aqueous liquid, which matters because water is what swells natural fibres, releases dyes and lets wool felt. A solvent leaves those alone and lifts what water cannot: fine inorganic particulates, greases and oils. What rules it out of domestic use is on the same sheet: the hazard banner reads CARCINOGEN, health is rated 3, and it does not burn. It also reacts violently with finely divided metals including aluminium, decomposes slowly in water and on heating, and is incompatible with oxidising agents — which is why a solvent process is a closed, recovered one rather than a bucket. The industry has moved substantially towards alternative solvents and this record does not claim otherwise about any particular cleaner.
Properties
- Chemical name
- Tetrachloroethene
- pH
- Not applicable
What works
Perchloroethylene is effective against Grease Supported
Why
- Perchloroethylene is explained by Solubility and polarity
- Perchloroethylene is explained by Why oil resists water
Sources for this page
Sources
Right to Know Hazardous Substance Fact Sheet: Tetrachloroethylene (RTK 1810)
New Jersey Department of Health, 2011 · Government or regulator
Relied on for: That tetrachloroethylene, also called perchloroethylene, is used as a dry cleaning solvent and degreaser, that it is classed as a carcinogen, that it reacts violently with finely divided metals, and that it decomposes slowly in water and on heating. (states this directly)
Verification: a person has read the passage relied on.
Read on — The 'Description and Use' block and the 'Handling and Storage' reactivity list. Supports the claim as stated. Establishes what professional dry cleaning has historically used, which lets the catalogue explain the difference between a solvent process and a water one without hand-waving. It does NOT become a domestic recommendation: the substance is a carcinogen and the record says so first.
Conserve O Gram 16/2: Dry Cleaning Museum Textiles
National Park Service, US Department of the Interior · Government or regulator
Relied on for: That certain soils are best reduced by cleaning with solvents other than water, and that solvent-suited soiling is typically fine inorganic particulates, greases and oils. (states this directly)
Verification: a person has read the passage relied on.
Read on — The section headed Examination and Assessment, including the soiling checklist. Supports the claim as stated. Gives the solvent-treatment method an authority on WHEN it is the right branch, expressed as soil type rather than as fabric type, which is the distinction the catalogue already draws elsewhere.
Last reviewed by a person on .