I have a recipe that requires an organic solvent. I know OF an organic solvent(methylene chloride), but i don't know the difference between a solvent & an organic solvent. Please Help, in layman's terms, if possible.

Use benzene. But be careful that when you're done with what you're doing that you get all of it off. That shit can give you cancer if you are around it too much.

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Remember the golden rule:
Those with the gold make the rules.

Any solvent thats carbon based, ether, benzene, chloroform, napthalene, toluene etc.

. organic just means carbon based, or containing at least one carbon atom, the basis of living matter, decomposed or not. carbon needs not exist outside the atomsphere but is crucial in a cycle of decomposision and creation on earth. basically any solvent available to the public is an organic solvent. i dont know of any that are not and to find out the exact carbon count on any solvent you mean to inquire about you might wanna look it up on chemfinder.com

You don't know of any inorganic solvent?

How about water for say, one of the most used solvents around.

Organic simply means in the molecular structure, carbon is included.

I'd steer clear of benzene or any -ene solvents, great solvents they are but are typically nasty. Carcinogens and are burn more violently making them harder to extinguish. Double and triple bond carbon bonds burn longer and release more energy. I try to avoid benzene based solvents if I can (Toluene, Phenol, chlorobenzene, etc) Ketones are great solvents such as acetone or MEK, alcohols are ok. Chloroform is a good one and so are ethers, but both are somewhat strong anesthetics so be very anal about ventilation and not breathing the vapors. Ethers, especially the most common diethyl ether are very flammable and can easily cause explosive mixtures in air, the reason that makes them great for use as starting fluid in internal combustion engines (hint).

I'd say may favorite solvents are ketones, ethers, and alcohols. But it all depends on what you are trying to dissolve, some solvents are just better than others for differing purposes.

I've never seen methyl ethyl ketone pure. Maybe I didnt look hard enough. It's definitely in Oateys PVC resin though, along with cyclohexane.

I'm pretty sure one can purchase 98% MEK
I've used 90% Tech Grade stuff. But for UL and analytical type testing higher purity MEK can be had, it's very expensive though I'm sure.

is propanoic acid a solvent?

other than water can you name another inorganic solvent for sale to someone without a license? ah no.

just wondering. im taking an AP chem class and we just got done with memorizing the different types of organic compounds... that was a bitch.