Product Overview
This is a pre-mixed 60/40 methanol/deionized water solution, offered as a Reagent grade product for buyers who need a consistent binary solvent without blending it in-house. Methanol (CAS 67-56-1, formula CH4O) is a colorless, fairly volatile liquid with a faintly sweet, alcohol-like odor, and it mixes completely with water — which is exactly why a fixed 60/40 ratio works as a ready-to-use mobile phase, extraction medium, and rinse solvent. The typical buyer is an analytical or QC lab running reversed-phase chromatography, a pharmaceutical process group running extractions, or an industrial operation that cleans equipment with a methanol/water blend and wants every batch to arrive at the same ratio.
Alliance Chemical is a distributor. We do not synthesize this solution at a bench — we package, document, and ship it under DOT hazmat rules from our Taylor, Texas warehouse, in pack sizes from 1 quart to 330 gallon totes, all offered to order.
Why This Concentration
The 60/40 ratio buys you two things: consistency and time. Diluting neat methanol with water in-house means measuring, mixing, and documenting every batch — and any drift in the ratio shows up downstream as retention-time shifts in HPLC or inconsistent extraction behavior. Ordering the blend pre-mixed removes that variable.
It does not remove the hazard. A 60% methanol solution is still a flammable, toxic liquid. It carries the signal word Danger and remains a fully regulated hazmat shipment, so the handling and transport obligations are the same class of seriousness as stronger methanol products. Pick this concentration when your process calls for a methanol/water system at this ratio and you would rather receive it blended with deionized water than dilute on site.
On grade: "Reagent" is the procurement designation labs typically specify when ordering solvents for analytical and laboratory work, as distinct from bulk industrial solvent purchases. The grade label describes how the product is positioned for purchasing; confirm the specifics against the technical data sheet and the lot Certificate of Analysis for your application.
Chemical Profile
The solution is a colorless liquid with a slight alcoholic odor. The methanol component has the formula CH4O, a molecular weight of 32.042, and CAS number 67-56-1. Density of the 60% methanol/water solution is 0.90 g/mL at 20 °C. Methanol is completely miscible with water — solubility is 100 mg/mL or greater at 70 °F — which is what makes a stable single-phase 60/40 blend possible in the first place. Vapor pressure is significant for a working solvent: 100 mmHg at 70.2 °F, rising to 237.87 mmHg at 100 °F. Those vapors are slightly heavier than air and can travel along floors or into sewers and confined spaces to a distant ignition source and flash back. That single physical fact drives most of the handling guidance below.
Industrial Applications
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HPLC mobile phase. Methanol/water is one of the standard binary systems in reversed-phase chromatography. A pre-mixed 60/40 blend gives the polarity balance many separations run at, and removes batch-to-batch mixing variation from the method.
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Spectroscopy solvent. Methanol/water blends serve as baseline and sample solvents in UV-Vis work, where solvent consistency matters as much as instrument calibration.
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Extraction medium. In pharmaceutical and chemical manufacturing, methanol/water mixtures are used in liquid-liquid extraction to pull intermediates and target compounds out of process streams.
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Equipment and glassware cleaning. The blend dissolves organic residues while the water fraction handles polar soils, making it a working rinse for lab glassware and process equipment.
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Solvent in chemical synthesis. Methanol/water is a common reaction and workup solvent where a partially aqueous methanol system is specified.
Handling & Storage
Treat this as a flammable and toxic liquid, because it is both. The product carries the signal word Danger with hazard statements H225 (highly flammable liquid and vapor), H301 (toxic if swallowed), H311 (toxic in contact with skin), H331 (toxic if inhaled), and H370 (causes damage to organs) (per the product's GHS classification). Note that skin contact and inhalation are hazard routes here — not just ingestion — so gloves and eye protection are the minimum, with ventilation sized to keep vapor down at the point of use.
Store it cool, dry, and well ventilated, away from heat and ignition sources, and away from strong oxidizers and acids. HDPE and glass are the standard container materials for methanol/water service. Ground and bond during transfers: with a vapor pressure of 100 mmHg at room-temperature conditions, this solution generates ignitable vapor readily, and accumulated vapor in a confined space can explode if ignited. Never work with it near open flame or sparking equipment.
Hazmat & Shipping
This product ships as a regulated hazardous material. It moves under UN1230 (per 49 CFR 172.101), proper shipping name Methanol (per 49 CFR 172.101), hazard class 3 with a subsidiary hazard of 6.1 (per 49 CFR 172.101), packing group II (per 49 CFR 172.101). Our team packages it in UN-rated containers with the required marks, labels, and shipping papers for a Class 3 flammable liquid with a toxic subsidiary risk. If your receiving dock has hazmat acceptance procedures, plan for them — this shipment will arrive placarded and papered as methanol.
Documentation
A Safety Data Sheet ships with every order, and we can supply the SDS in English, Spanish, French, and Japanese. A lot-specific Certificate of Analysis is available for the material you receive, and a Technical Data Sheet is available for spec review before you buy. If your quality system requires the COA on file before receipt, ask and we will send it ahead of the shipment.
Why Buy from Alliance Chemical
We package this solution across the full working range — 1 quart bench bottles through 5, 15, and 55 gallon drums up to 275 and 330 gallon totes — every size shipped as compliant UN1230 Class 3 hazmat with SDS, TDS, and lot COA documentation behind it. Alliance Chemical has distributed industrial chemicals since 1998 and has served more than 50,000 customers from our Taylor, Texas warehouse. The shipping and handling guidance on this page is reviewed by Andre Taki, DOT Hazmat Specialist.
