A question for chemists...

[EricMartello]

I want to mix two solvents together in a specific ratio to form a compound. Does it matter HOW I mix them together? To clarify - can I just put the appropriate portions into a container and shake it gently or do I need to do some special process to get them to mix "correctly"?

 

[NeoPTLD]

it depends on the solvents and formulation
i.e.
To prepare a 5% ethanol in water, w/w, you measure out a solution containing 50g of ethanol, then add water to make it 1000.0g.

To prepare a 5% ethanol in water, v/v (abv), you measure out an equivalent of 50.0ml of pure alcohol, mix thoroughly with water to make 1.0L

If you measure out exactly 10.0ml of abs. alcohol and 10.0ml of water, you get something that's less than 20.0ml. I think this is a common chemistry class demonstration.

 

[Gibsons]

Originally posted by: EricMartello
I want to mix two solvents together in a specific ratio to form a compound. Does it matter HOW I mix them together? To clarify - can I just put the appropriate portions into a container and shake it gently or do I need to do some special process to get them to mix "correctly"?

You're expecting the solvents to react and form a new compound? That might be complicated.

or do you just want a liquid that's a mixture of the two solvents? See NeoPTLD's post above. one rule of thumb though: add acids to water, not water to acids.

 

[CycloWizard]

The answer, of course, is that it depends. As the others have said, if you just want a mixture of solvents, it's not too tricky. If you're trying to make nanoparticles, you'll need to be a little more careful. Chemists would be out of work if there were a simple answer to this question.

 

[Paperdoc]

Lots of questions involved here. First is your assumption that you will generate a new compound by mixing two solvents together. To a Chemist, "compound" has a specific meaning - it is a new chemical, not just a mixture of things. To get there means your two input compounds (the reactants) actually undergo a chemical reaction to produce a new compound. Oh, and even that assumes that, when you say "two solvents", you actually mean two pure chemical compounds, and not just two quantities of fun stuff from a bottle that says "Cleaning Solvent" or something similar. But if you do mean you expect a chemical reaction, then there are questions such as why you expect the reaction to occur? There are good rules that predict exactly what will react with what, under exactly what conditions, and what product will be produced. Then there are considerations such as whether you must provide an external boost of energy (like heating the mixture) or whether the reaction will proceed without that, and whether the reaction will actually give off energy. Will gases be produced? Hot or flammable gases can produce disastrous explosions! Will the product be toxic? For example, there's a well-known caution with household cleaners: you NEVER mix chlorine-based bleaches (e.g., Javex) with acid-based cleaning liquids because they will react and release phosgene gas which is very toxic and spreads around rapidly.

Bottom line, there is no simple answer to your general question. If you provide details, like exactly what two "solvents" you propose to mix, and what you expect to get, we can help. If you tell us why in the first place (i.e., what are you trying to accomplish?), we may be able to provide advice on that, too. I'm a little worried, given that you know you don't know a lot about chemistry, that you could get yourself into big trouble by mixing certain things that are dangerous. Granted, most such efforts are not really dangerous, but the few that are can cause a lot of damage quickly.

 

[EricMartello]

OK maybe "compound" is not the right term for the final result as it will probably not be a new chemical; it's just a mixture of solvents. The chemicals I am interested in mixing are categorized as AH - either toluene or xylene - and I want to mix one of those with acetone, and then add some kind of lubricating liquid in certain ratios to get something which I can use in my car's gas tank. Basically an experimental fuel treatment. The idea is that the treatment, when added in small concentrations to a tank of gas (about 3 oz per 10 gallons), it will clean the intake runners, valves, combustion chamber, etc and improve the overall performance of the engine.

I would say, not so much improve the engine's performance as it restores degraded performance that occurs with normal usage, but there is some mention that acetone can improve combusion by reducing the surface tension of gasoline. Whether or not that is true remains unknown to me at this time. What I do know is that racers with high compression or boosted engines have been using stuff like toluene and xylene in their pure forms, but in large multi-gallon quantities to boost the octane rating of their fuel (i.e. 3 gal of gas with 1.5 gal of Tol.). The 3 oz / 10 gal doses I'm working with are more about cleaning the fuel and intake side of the engine to allow it to operate at its full potential.

So with that said, if I can successfully find a mix of one of the AH chemicals + acetone, I just need to find a suitable lubricant that can handle the conditions inside a combustion chamber of a car. Some suggestions have been mineral spirits, ATF and motor oil...but I don't want anything that might mess up my O2 sensors or clog up my catalytic converter...so the jury is still out on that one.

One final problem is storage - if I go all Martha Stuart and whip some of this stuff up, I can't just stash it in an empty soda bottle since it will likely dissolve the plastic. What is a safe container to put this stuff? I was hoping I could use some special "chemical resistant" kind of plastic container that I could keep in the trunk of my car. Would an aluminum bottle work? I don't want to use glass because I don't want something that can shatter.

 

[CycloWizard]

A safe container would be a glass bottle with a screw cap with teflon tape. The bottle should preferably be lined with plastic. That said, I would never leave something like this in your car, nor put it in the gas tank. These chemicals are very volatile, flammable, and can be explosive under certain conditions. This is definitely not something I'd play around with, even though I've worked extensively with these chemicals in other contexts.

 

[JackSpadesSI]

FYI, there is no such thing as "pure" xylene.

There is 1,2-dimethylbenzene (ortho-xylene), 1,3-dimethylbenzene (meta-xylene), and 1,4-dimethylbenzene (para-xylene). Collectively, these are considered xylene.

Additionally, any xylene you buy is guaranteed to contain ethylbenzene as a contaminant.

 

[Paperdoc]

Right, so we are dealing only with a mixture of chemicals which will not react with each other chemically. That removes many concerns.

Certainly you must recognize that the mixture, just like its major components, will be highly volatile and highly flammable, just like the gasoline you propose to be using, too. Hence it needs the same storage and safety considerations. But there are additional factors for the storage container as you anticipate. Gasoline is mostly aliphatic hydrocarbons, and any container designed for gasoline will do fine for plain gas. However, you don't often find small containers (say, 1 liter or less) available for gasoline. In addition, The materials you propose are not exactly like gasoline. Toluene and xylene are "aromatic hydrocarbons" (not aliphatic) more related to benzene. Acetone, on the other hand, is somewhat like aliphatics, but is certainly different enough that a container's resistance to acetone is often mentioned specifically. One key difference is that most aliphatics and aromatics are non-polar or nearly so, whereas acetone is hightly polar which is why it is a great solvent for polar materials. So if you have access to chemical resistance specs for plastic containers. you'd look for resistance to both aromatic solvents and acetone. One type I suggest you check is Nalgene lab storage bottles. Under that trade name, that company sells a few types of plastic bottle with lids (some wide-mouth, some smaller-necked with screw caps) made from different plastics, and specifies what materials can be stored in which types of plastics.

I'm not sure how or why you are trying to add a "lubricant" to the mix that will survive and function in the combustion chamber. If your intent is to lubricate items before the cylinder, you actually want to use something that does it job up to there, and then does burn easily in the cylinder so it leaves behind no residue to foul the cylinder and exhaust system. If you want a lubricant to function actually in the combustion zone (e.g. on valve seal surfaces and faces, on cylinder walls and rings, etc, probably no typical "oil" will do that in the high-temperature environment - it will simply be destroyed instead of acting like a common oil-type lubricant. In those conditions, "lubrication" is done differently. For example, one of the old problems auto engine designers had to solve was from the switch to lead-free gas. Well, more specifically, the elimination of tetraethyl lead as a gasoline additive to control octane rating and engine detonation rates end avoid "ping". What had been happening prior to that was that the breakdown of tetraethyl lead during combustion left minor films of lead compounds on the valve sealing surfaces which acted as lubricants there. With no lead compounds in modern fuels those surfaces were overheating and "burning out" the valves too fast. They had to find new materials from which to build valves and seats for the new conditions. Now, you and I would not think of lead as a "lubricant", but that was one of the functions of tetraethyl lead in those older designs.

By the way, JackSpadesSI is right, there are really three pure xylenes, and you can get them separately in purified form for chemical lab uses if necessary. The cheaper and more commonly available "Xylene" will be a mix of the three, plus some minor contaminants just as he says. The proportions of these components in the mix may vary according to the source.

 

[EricMartello]

Originally posted by: JackSpadesSI
FYI, there is no such thing as "pure" xylene.

There is 1,2-dimethylbenzene (ortho-xylene), 1,3-dimethylbenzene (meta-xylene), and 1,4-dimethylbenzene (para-xylene). Collectively, these are considered xylene.

Additionally, any xylene you buy is guaranteed to contain ethylbenzene as a contaminant.

As long as it burns cleanly I don't think that would be a problem.

Originally posted by: Paperdoc
I'm not sure how or why you are trying to add a "lubricant" to the mix that will survive and function in the combustion chamber. If your intent is to lubricate items before the cylinder, you actually want to use something that does it job up to there, and then does burn easily in the cylinder so it leaves behind no residue to foul the cylinder and exhaust system. If you want a lubricant to function actually in the combustion zone (e.g. on valve seal surfaces and faces, on cylinder walls and rings, etc, probably no typical "oil" will do that in the high-temperature environment - it will simply be destroyed instead of acting like a common oil-type lubricant. In those conditions, "lubrication" is done differently. For example, one of the old problems auto engine designers had to solve was from the switch to lead-free gas. Well, more specifically, the elimination of tetraethyl lead as a gasoline additive to control octane rating and engine detonation rates end avoid "ping". What had been happening prior to that was that the breakdown of tetraethyl lead during combustion left minor films of lead compounds on the valve sealing surfaces which acted as lubricants there. With no lead compounds in modern fuels those surfaces were overheating and "burning out" the valves too fast. They had to find new materials from which to build valves and seats for the new conditions. Now, you and I would not think of lead as a "lubricant", but that was one of the functions of tetraethyl lead in those older designs.

I'll check out Nalgene bottles, and I know that lead used to provide a lubricating function. Yes, I do want the lubricant to burn up and not leave a residue so I was thinking that a small shot of oil would do the trick. I suppose the idea of adding some kind of oil to the mix would be to mimic the effect of lead to an extent without actually having the same drawbacks as using actual lead as an additive (i.e. race gas).

 

[NeoPTLD]

Polyethylene bottles. The jug windshield washer fluid comes in. That stuff is pretty much impervious to all solvents, especially for short term use. Long term, they permeate.

Oil that burns clean? 2-stroke oil. The stuff is supposed to lubricate, but burn with minimal deposit and it's designed to be introduced into combustion with fuel, but to preserve catalytic converter, you really aren't supposed to burn anything other than fuel.

 

[bendixG15]

Originally posted by: EricMartello
................ The idea is that the treatment, when added in small concentrations to a tank of gas (about 3 oz per 10 gallons), it will clean the intake runners, valves, combustion chamber, etc and improve the overall performance of the engine.

It may be wise to visit your local auto supply store and buy some commercially available stuff that advertises to do the cleaning job that you want

Two benefits .....
1 - The commercial stuff will not damage your engine
2 - You end up with the empty storage "bottles" that you need.

 

[EricMartello]

Originally posted by: bendixG15

Originally posted by: EricMartello
................ The idea is that the treatment, when added in small concentrations to a tank of gas (about 3 oz per 10 gallons), it will clean the intake runners, valves, combustion chamber, etc and improve the overall performance of the engine.

It may be wise to visit your local auto supply store and buy some commercially available stuff that advertises to do the cleaning job that you want

Two benefits .....
1 - The commercial stuff will not damage your engine
2 - You end up with the empty storage "bottles" that you need.

Where's the fun in that? 😱

 

[EricMartello]

Would aluminum containers work for safely storing my mix? I actually have a few of them laying around my place. They're not coated with anything, just plain aluminum bottles with plastic caps.

 

[KurskKnyaz]

Originally posted by: EricMartello
OK maybe "compound" is not the right term for the final result as it will probably not be a new chemical; it's just a mixture of solvents. The chemicals I am interested in mixing are categorized as AH - either toluene or xylene - and I want to mix one of those with acetone,

Acetone is water soluble and xylene and toluene are not. If you want these two to react somehow (they won't by themselves) then you will need a magnetic stirrer because your two reagents are not miscible. You may end up with what appears to a a homogeneous solution but over time the two will separate into an acetone and toluene/xylene layers.

In gasoline all would mix, but things can get complicated and depend on the amounts of what you are mixing.

I would say, not so much improve the engine's performance as it restores degraded performance that occurs with normal usage, but there is some mention that acetone can improve combusion by reducing the surface tension of gasoline.

Acetone is a polar molecule, it would induce a dipole in the hydrocarbons found in gasoline and actually increase the surface tension and decrease the solubility of aromatics such as xylene and toluene because the induced dipole will counter the vann der val forces that hold aromatics together and keep them at a liquid phase.

Whether or not that is true remains unknown to me at this time. What I do know is that racers with high compression or boosted engines have been using stuff like toluene and xylene in their pure forms, but in large multi-gallon quantities to boost the octane rating of their fuel (i.e. 3 gal of gas with 1.5 gal of Tol.). The 3 oz / 10 gal doses I'm working with are more about cleaning the fuel and intake side of the engine to allow it to operate at its full potential.

The only way I can see a performance increase is through a decrease in the vapor pressure of the gasoline. With less gasoline vapor there would be a larger mass of gasoline combusting within the volume of a cylinder, this is just a guess though.

So with that said, if I can successfully find a mix of one of the AH chemicals + acetone, I just need to find a suitable lubricant that can handle the conditions inside a combustion chamber of a car. Some suggestions have been mineral spirits, ATF and motor oil...but I don't want anything that might mess up my O2 sensors or clog up my catalytic converter...so the jury is still out on that one.

Acetone, xylene, and toluene would mix by themselves in gasoline.

One final problem is storage - if I go all Martha Stuart and whip some of this stuff up, I can't just stash it in an empty soda bottle since it will likely dissolve the plastic. What is a safe container to put this stuff? I was hoping I could use some special "chemical resistant" kind of plastic container that I could keep in the trunk of my car. Would an aluminum bottle work? I don't want to use glass because I don't want something that can shatter.

Sorry, its glass. Some aluminum may ionize into acetone and make its way to your engine.

 

[silverpig]

We have acetone, o-xylene and toluene in the lab. They are kept in glass (plastic for the acetone) in a solvent cabinet in large-ish quantities, and the acetone is kept in a nalgene bottle in handy usage quantities.

Whatever you do be safe and be in a well ventilated area.

 

[EricMartello]

Originally posted by: KurskKnyaz
Acetone is water soluble and xylene and toluene are not. If you want these two to react somehow (they won't by themselves) then you will need a magnetic stirrer because your two reagents are not miscible. You may end up with what appears to a a homogeneous solution but over time the two will separate into an acetone and toluene/xylene layers.

Yes, but I am not mixing any of the chemicals into water. I am mixing the chemicals with themselves.

What do you mean by magnetic stirrer? Are you saying that I can put a magnet on a swizzle stick and use that to ensure that the mixture stays mixed? How long would I need to mix it to ensure it doesn't separate?

In gasoline all would mix, but things can get complicated and depend on the amounts of what you are mixing.

I am mixing small amounts - I plan to start with 3 oz of xylene and acentone with 1 oz of oil...maybe 2-stroke oil. Should I start with a quantity of gasoline and mix those ingredients into that? I like the magnetic stirrer idea if it works the same.

The only way I can see a performance increase is through a decrease in the vapor pressure of the gasoline. With less gasoline vapor there would be a larger mass of gasoline combusting within the volume of a cylinder, this is just a guess though.

Plausible...in my mind it's just the cleaning effect restoring degraded performance. I don't see how such small amounts of those chemicals could have any perceptible effect on the combustion process...but I do know that it doesn't take long for my exhaust pipe to get all black and sooty, so I think that there is a similar buildups inside the engine...maybe a varnish kinda deal on the seal part of the valves.

On a side note, some people who have tried this mix reported that their engine runs a few degrees cooler. I dunno what that indicates - as I understand it, you want the engine to run at its "optimal" temperature and not above or below that.

Sorry, its glass. Some aluminum may ionize into acetone and make its way to your engine.

I know glass would work but I don't want to use it since it's likely to break. How long would it take for the aluminum to ionize into the acetone? Wouldn't the fuel filter catch any that did? I'm sure pump gas has plenty of micron-small contaminants floating around in it too.

 

[KurskKnyaz]

Originally posted by: EricMartello

Yes, but I am not mixing any of the chemicals into water. I am mixing the chemicals with themselves.

What do you mean by magnetic stirrer? Are you saying that I can put a magnet on a swizzle stick and use that to ensure that the mixture stays mixed? How long would I need to mix it to ensure it doesn't separate?

Magnetic stirrers are used to immiscible liquids to increase their reaction rate:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_stirrer

I am not sure that acetone is very soluble in aromatic compounds such as toluene. They should both be soluble in gasoline since it is a mix of hydrocarbons and already has toluene in it. You probably won't need a magnetic stirrer for that.

I am mixing small amounts - I plan to start with 3 oz of xylene and acentone with 1 oz of oil...maybe 2-stroke oil. Should I start with a quantity of gasoline and mix those ingredients into that? I like the magnetic stirrer idea if it works the same.

I think you would be better off adding each ingredient to gasoline. It has been a while since i took organic chemistry but I know that gasoline already contains hydrocarbons similar to acetone and toluene. You won't need any hi-tech stirring device.

Plausible...in my mind it's just the cleaning effect restoring degraded performance. I don't see how such small amounts of those chemicals could have any perceptible effect on the combustion process...but I do know that it doesn't take long for my exhaust pipe to get all black and sooty, so I think that there is a similar buildups inside the engine...maybe a varnish kinda deal on the seal part of the valves.

Soot is mostly made of hydrocarbons that didn't combust. I'm sure they would combust the next cycle around. Also they will not precipitate as much inside your engine as they would in your pipe because the engine is at a much higher temperature and the uncombusted hydrocarbons would still be in their gas phase while the cylinder is filling up for its next combustion cycle.

On a side note, some people who have tried this mix reported that their engine runs a few degrees cooler. I dunno what that indicates - as I understand it, you want the engine to run at its "optimal" temperature and not above or below that.

It could be because you are correct about the engine being cleaner and therefore generating less heat from mechanical friction.

I know glass would work but I don't want to use it since it's likely to break. How long would it take for the aluminum to ionize into the acetone? Wouldn't the fuel filter catch any that did? I'm sure pump gas has plenty of micron-small contaminants floating around in it too.

I don't know exactly. I just know that some metals may may produce + ions in solution if they are used as a container. ever notice how water tastes a bit different if you drink it out of an aluminum cup. I don't know what affect it will have on an engine, but you can't go wrong with glass.

I only have basic knowledge of chemistry (I have a BS in biology).

 

[Gibsons]

I think acetone should be soluble in toluene. although miscible with water, it's pretty hydrophobic, I suspect much moreso than ethanol. My Merck manual doesn't state precisely that, but under "use," it states:
Solvent for fats, oils, waxes, resins, rubber, plastics....

This paper indicates that they are miscible, but doesn't say in what proportion. Text

For simple liquid mixing, you shouldn't need a magnetic stirrer at all. If your two or three liquids are really soluble in each other, they'll mix very quickly and easily. If they aren't, you can stir for a week and not get them mixed.

Magnetic stirrers are useful when you you've got a large amount some solid that you're trying to get into solution near the saturation point or something like that.

 

[Paperdoc]

Magnetic stirrers are just one of many ways to stir up a mixture. If you have two things together that are not completely mixed (that is, one completely dissolved in the other) a mixer simply increases the contact between the surface areas of the two things so that the rate of dissolving can be faster. But once the solution is formed, a mixer has no further function for that purpose.

In your case, trying to add a small quantity of Acetone to toluene or xylene probably won't really benefit from a mixer, whether magnetic bead or not. For the proportions you're talking about, the limiting factor is usually the equilibrium condition of miscibility. That is, at equilibrium (after a very long time, if that's what it takes), what's the limit on the proportion of acetone to toluene in the resulting solution, before you cannot get any more acetone to mix into the solution. There may not be a limit - that is, you might be able to make a solution of these two chemicals in each other at any proportion you like - but if there is, no amount of mixing will change that. And that still is NOT a chemical reaction, so the mixing is not promoting a reaction at all. (Well, technically chemists understand that the formation of a solution really does involve a type of "reaction", but not in the usual sense.) But suppose the limit is "X"% acetone dissolved in toluene. You can make any solution you like with an acetone content of "X" % or less and it will require very little mixing, so a mixer probably is not necessary. But you'll never get over "X" % no matter how much mixing you provide.

Regarding the reference to contamination of your solution from an aluminum container, there are two ways this can happen, and both produce a true solution of aluminum metal atoms (or perhaps aluminum (+++) ions in a soluble complex). As solvents in a true solution, they cannot be filtered out, so your "fuel filter", whatever that is, will note remove them. Since acetone is highly polar it does associate with water quite well. So, adding acetone to a non-polar material like toluene may be a way of adding water to the solution, too, because it can be carried in by the acetone. With this small quantity of water in the solution, even though it starts out associated with acetone, it may react with aluminum atoms at the metal surface to create hydrated aluminum atoms or, more likely, hydrated aluminum hydroxide in the solution at very low concentrations. Another possibility - I really don't know whether this happens to any significant extent - is that, as a highly polar molecule, acetone itself may form very small quantities of stabilizing complexes with aluminum atoms, thus bringing them into the solution.

Soot in the tailpipe is not a result of dirt accumulated in the engine and then later cleaned out. It is a result of incomplete combustion in the cylinder, leaving various unburned hydrocarbons in the exhaust gases, plus mixed-in carbon particles. All of these can deposit it cooler places as black solid particles. It's really the exact same process - incomplete combustion - that deposits junk in the engine (including in the cylinder) and in the exhaust pipe system.

If an engine runs slightly cooler with additives mixed into the gasoline, it is not because they reduced friction in the moving engine parts. It is because the multiple complex combustion reactions have been modified, probably in the direction of reducing the efficiency of the process, thereby producing less heat. After all, thermodynamics shows us that the engine work output is, by the Carnot Cycle, related directly to the maximum and minimum temperatures and pressures produced in the cycle.

 

[PlasmaBomb]

For some reason I thought that you were talking about octane booster 🙂

May I direct you here?

Originally posted by: KurskKnyaz

Originally posted by: EricMartello
OK maybe "compound" is not the right term for the final result as it will probably not be a new chemical; it's just a mixture of solvents. The chemicals I am interested in mixing are categorized as AH - either toluene or xylene - and I want to mix one of those with acetone,

Acetone is water soluble and xylene and toluene are not. If you want these two to react somehow (they won't by themselves) then you will need a magnetic stirrer because your two reagents are not miscible. You may end up with what appears to a a homogeneous solution but over time the two will separate into an acetone and toluene/xylene layers.

I hate to tell you but acetone and toluene/xylene are miscible (handy reference).

Acetone is a polar molecule, it would induce a dipole in the hydrocarbons found in gasoline and actually increase the surface tension and decrease the solubility of aromatics such as xylene and toluene because the induced dipole will counter the vann der val forces that hold aromatics together and keep them at a liquid phase.

While you are correct that acetone is a polar molecule, its surface tension is 25.20 mN/m, xylene?s surface tension is around 29-30 mN/m (depending on the isomer), toluene?s surface tension is 28.40 mN/m.

The only way I can see a performance increase is through a decrease in the vapor pressure of the gasoline. With less gasoline vapor there would be a larger mass of gasoline combusting within the volume of a cylinder, this is just a guess though.

Huh? If the gasoline isn?t in the vapour phase it isn?t going to combust.

As for vapour pressure, xylene and toluenes are both quite a bit lower than gas. Acetone would be somewhat similar depending on the gas in your area. At low concentrations (such as you propose) it shouldn?t be a problem, but at higher concs it may result in poor cold starting.

So with that said, if I can successfully find a mix of one of the AH chemicals + acetone, I just need to find a suitable lubricant that can handle the conditions inside a combustion chamber of a car. Some suggestions have been mineral spirits, ATF and motor oil...but I don't want anything that might mess up my O2 sensors or clog up my catalytic converter...so the jury is still out on that one.

As suggested two-stroke oil is probably your best bet but do some research! The corvette forums recommended MMO (mineral motor oil?).

Wiki - Toluene also poses similar problems as alcohol fuels, as it eats through standard rubber fuel lines and has no lubricating properties as standard gasoline does, which can break down fuel pumps and cause upper cylinder bore wear.

At the proposed concs. the gas should still meet the definitions of standard pump gas and this shouldn't be too much of a worry.

Acetone, xylene, and toluene would mix by themselves in gasoline.

Yup, but with a 1 litre container, a quick shake won't go amiss...

One final problem is storage - if I go all Martha Stuart and whip some of this stuff up, I can't just stash it in an empty soda bottle since it will likely dissolve the plastic. What is a safe container to put this stuff? I was hoping I could use some special "chemical resistant" kind of plastic container that I could keep in the trunk of my car. Would an aluminum bottle work? I don't want to use glass because I don't want something that can shatter.

Sorry, its glass. Some aluminum may ionize into acetone and make its way to your engine.

Xylene is a major component in cellulose thinners (cellulose thinners), which comes in stainless steel cans.

Storing in aluminium containers isn't mentioned in the MSDS of either xylene, toluene, or acetone. There is data that suggests that acidic acetone/methanol solutions can complex (dissolve aluminium). You could always test the can with a small amount of the mixture.

Glass should also work provided you are careful since if you knock it over you could smash it. Acetone comes in plastic bottles, so if you buy some acetone and use the container you should be OK with xylene/toluene. You could always test the bottle with a little mixture first.

One thing to do would be to store it in a cool place in the dark. Organic solvents come in amber glass to protect them from the light and prevent the formation of peroxides, if you use a jelly (or jam) jar, it will be clear. You do not want to form peroxides!

Do not use containers containing copper.