Mr. Man-wai Chang wrote:
On 5/25/2018 3:27 AM, Paul wrote:

How do you "liquidate" a dried tip of a silver pen? I got one that's
unusable.

Look up the MSDS for the product.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safety_data_sheet

You meant I should have just thrown it away properly?


Here's an example.

Say I own "permatex rear window defogger repair kit"

I do a Google search on

permatex rear window defogger repair kit MSDS

That gives me this PDF. I read the PDF.

https://www.lemona.lt/LIUSE/TI/En/Pdf/09117.pdf

SILVER 7440-22-4 40-50% by weight
ETHYL ACETATE 141-78-6 20-30% by weight
ETHANOL 64-17-5 10-20% by weight
1-METHOXY-2-PROPANOL ACETATE 108-65-6 10-20% by weight
POLY (METHYL METHACRYLATE) 9011-14-7 1-10% by weight
PIGMENT ORANGE #13

Then you look up some of the ingredients.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methyl_methacrylate

The principal application is the manufacture of
polymethyl methacrylate acrylic plastics (PMMA).

That means some of the components in the kit, form a polymer.
This is an irreversible chemical reaction. In other
words, when it dries, it has chemically changed into
a form of plastic.

One of the chemical is a solvent. ETHANOL.

That means you can add a little ethanol to the tip
of the pen, but because the other components have
formed some sort of acrylic plastic or acetate compound,
you would expect the ethanol to be ineffective at
rejuvenating the pen.

For some chemical compounds, they're simply solvated.
And when the solvent evaporates, you add some more
solvent and that "rejuvenates" the material and allows
you to use it.

However, if an irreversible chemical reaction happens,
you can pour all the ethanol you want on it, and it
won't be good as new.

Paul