Benzyl Acetate Degradation?

[mnitabach]

Does it sound right that a bottle of benzyl acetate stored at room temp with a pretty big headspace in the bottle would start degrading & developing "off notes" in the eight months after obtaining a fresh stock?

 

[mnitabach]

I have received a communication elsewhere from someone who definitely would know that this is not at all expected with benzyl acetate... Any other input is definitely welcome... But I am now prioritizing other working by hypotheses for this current shitshow... 😹 😹 😹

 

[Casper_grassy]

This could be entirely wrong and sound dumb (i’m not scared) but I’ll say it anyway.

Is your Benzyl Acetate a natural isolate? I have no idea if natural isolates degrade faster than synthetics but in my head it sounds possible. I’ve never had this issue but to counter myself, I never buy more than 25g/30ml top note molecules like BA, Limonene, A Pinene etc so I never even have them stored close to 8 months.

I have definitely read on numerous occasion that having a lot of empty headspace could cause issues, but again, IDK how accurate that is.

 

[Thioacetone]

Maybe the ester is hydrolysing in the presence of water in the air.
Do the off smells smell like benzyl alcohol and acetic acid?

 

[ourmess]

My kneejerk reaction is "could it be that benzyl acetate just smells like awfulness and blech in isolation?" but I know that's not what you meant. ;p