Petroleum ethers are extremely volatile, have very low flash points, and present a significant fire hazard.[5] Fires should be fought with foam, carbon dioxide, dry chemical or carbon tetrachloride.[2]
Petroleum ether is mostly used by pharmaceutical companies and in the manufacturing process. It is also commonly used for recreational purposes as an inhalant drug. It is a lightweight hydrocarbon used chiefly as a nonpolar solvent.
Petroleum ether is the petroleum fraction consisting of aliphatic hydrocarbons and boiling in the range 35–60 °C, and commonly used as a laboratory solvent
It is truly an ether, in the language of organic nomenclature, since it has an oxygen atom with carbons on either side, which is the criteria for the ether classification. Strangely, petroleum ether is not an ether and, in fact, it is not even a single chemical.
