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Adiluent (also referred to as afiller,dilutant orthinner) is adiluting agent. Certain fluids are tooviscous to be pumped easily or toodense to flow from one particular point to the other. This can be troublesome, because it might not be economically feasible to transport such fluids in this state. To ease this restricted movement, diluents are added. This decreases the viscosity of the fluids, thereby also decreasing the pumping/transportation costs.
One industrial application is the transport ofcrude oil via pipelines.Heavy crude oil/bitumen are fluids with high viscosity, especially at low temperatures. The addition of a diluent enables the diluted fluid (dilbit in the case of bitumen) to meet pipeline specifications in order for it to be efficiently transported. Typical diluent in this case isnaphtha orcondensate.[1]
Types of diluents more familiar to the general public includepaint thinner and nail polish thinner, both of which improve the consistency and applicability of the products to which they are added. Diluent is also used as a term insolvent extraction for an inert solvent in which a metal extraction agent (extractant) is dissolved. In solvent extraction the diluent has potentially several uses. It can be used as a solvent (in the purely chemical sense rather than the solvent extraction sense) to dissolve an extractant which is a solid and so render it suitable for use in aliquid–liquid extraction process. In other cases such asPUREXnuclear reprocessing the diluent (kerosene) is used to reduce the maximum metal loading which the organic layer can reach. If the organic layer was to acquire too much metal then a solidmetal complex might form, or more worryingly in a nuclear process the potential for acriticality accident if thefissile metal concentration in the organic phase becomes too high. Commonly in both lab and industrial solvent extraction of metals petroleum kerosene is used as a diluent, but in recent times it has been shown thatNeste's second generation biodiesel which was formed byhydrodeoxygenation can be used as a diluent.[2]
Water is probably the most common and familiar diluent, but many substances, such as oils, do not dissolve well in water and therefore require different diluents to be diluted effectively without separating into parts.
Diluents are also very important in thepharmaceutical industry. They are inactive ingredients that are added to tablets and capsules in addition to the active drug. For example, aTylenol 325 mg tablet does not weigh 325 mg. This is the weight of the activeacetaminophen, while the tablet weighs more due to other additives known as diluents. These additives may be used as binders, disintegrants (help the tablet break apart in the digestive system), or flavor enhancers. Some very common diluents in tablets includestarch, cellulose derivatives, andmagnesium stearate (a lubricant). (See alsoExcipient.)
Diluents are also used in vaccines such asMMR to reconstitute the vaccine after storage.[3]
Inunderwater diving a diluent gas is generally used to reduce the oxygen fraction of thebreathing gas to a non-toxic level appropriate to the ambient pressure at which it is to be breathed. Diluent gases for this use aremetabolically inert and non-toxic, but may have some level ofnarcotic effect at high partial pressure. The commonly used diluents for breathing gases arenitrogen, provided in the form of air, andhelium, provided asheliox, or both nitrogen and helium together astrimix. The diluent used in scubarebreathers contains enough oxygen to support life as it is also used as abailout gas.
Helium is also useful as a breathing gas diluent to reducework of breathing of gases, both at high ambient pressures, and for medical purposes, but it is an expensive gas, which limits its utility.
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The1985 diethylene glycol wine scandal was an incident in which severalAustrianwineries illegallyadulterated theirwines using the toxic substancediethylene glycol (a primary ingredient in some brands ofantifreeze) to make the wines appearsweeter and morefull-bodied in the style oflate harvest wines.[4]