Hello

A few hours ago I was painting cloth banner with some people (for some school-club reasons), and we're using some old painting wares, including stone hard brushes and a bottle of, I believe, thinner (at least it's colorless alcoholic since when it touched my skin it causes cold sensation, just like alcohol). We didn't have any water container with us for washing some of the usable brushes, so we took some plastic glasses from a beverage canteen stall (the glasses were kinda thin, easily bent/squished etc, and transparent) and used those to store water. I also poured some thinner into one of the glasses and dipped one of the hardened brush in it, hoping the dried up paint will dissolve and would let us use that brush.

Instead, the plastic glass deformed, and broke, causing the thinner to flow quite everywhere........ Well, I just thought up a guess on why this happens, but I need your confirmation in case: Is it that plastic's polymeric (hydrocarbon) structure causes the dissolving?


PS: Don't start a flame war on my neglectance, please....

Yep, you got it, plastics are often a mixture of a few different polymer chains, and some will dissolve in organic solvents, like paint thinners.

Organic solvent? Thinner? Hmmm, I guess I need to learn more on terminology.... what does this 'organic' actually mean?

Anyway, thanks for answering ^_^

Organic chemistry is carbon chemistry, so any compound which is basically a carbon chain with functional groups is organic. The cold sensation doesn't mean it's an alcohol, just that it has a relatively low boiling point. Ether is a good example of this.

Alcohol and plastic are fairly compatable. I think you used either acetone or laquer thinner.

Thank you thank you :) for your replies

And spidergoat (and other too), I'm sorry that in all those excitement, I forgot to see the liquid's composition (it's packed in a dark glass bottle with a label, but I didn't look at it), so guess this matter may stop here..... Maybe next time if the chance comes again.