Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Composition of metal spatulas

Akhil jain - 17-3-2018 at 08:48

Does anyone knows what are metal spatulas that we use in lab are made of?
Correctly

highpower48 - 17-3-2018 at 08:51

All mine are stainless steel

unionised - 17-3-2018 at 09:23

You can also get nickel ones.

Akhil jain - 17-3-2018 at 09:33

Quote: Originally posted by unionised  
You can also get nickel ones.

Are they pure nickel

aga - 17-3-2018 at 10:58

The cheap Chinese ones are plated with nickel or something with copper underneath.

VSEPR_VOID - 17-3-2018 at 11:39

I have not had any issues with stainless steal tools unless I am stiring a strongly acidic or alkali solution in which case you should use PTFE or glass

unionised - 18-3-2018 at 05:28

Quote: Originally posted by Akhil jain  
Quote: Originally posted by unionised  
You can also get nickel ones.

Are they pure nickel

Some claim to be.
http://nickel-electro.co.uk/spatulasspoons/spatulas-spoon-on...
But how pure is pure?

diddi - 18-3-2018 at 12:49

the grade of stainless is important. some of the junky stainless is 304 which is no where near as good as 316 for chemistry applications. i have seen cheap spatulas react violently with nitric acid and produce Cu2+ colouration, but they are supposed to be stainless steel. such is life when we want to pay $1 for a good quality tool, and the chinese are happy to supply at that pricepoint.

DraconicAcid - 18-3-2018 at 13:03

The only problems I've had with our steel spatulas is when some twit of a student uses them to stir a solution of copper nitrate/acetate/chloride/sulphate and can't figure out why it suddenly looks so pretty.