BenZeen
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Storage Bottle for Dichloromethane
Hi
I have some new autoclavable, boro glass lab bottles (the ones with the blue lid) and I would like to know if they are suitable for storing dcm or
will it attack the plastic lid? The bottles were kinda expensive so i dont want to find out the hard way. Thanks
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peach
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Mine's in a HDPE container and it's been fine. If they're the Schott Duran kind with the blue lids, I've had it in them before as well and it's been
okay.
Be careful screwing the lids on tight if you're using glass, and where you put them. Personally, I don't use glass with liquids, particularly the
volatile kind, unless I have to. If you leave those bottles with the lids screwed on, even at room temperature in the dark, when they warm up a little
they're go "HHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh" when you open the cap. It's worse if they're big and half filled. Glass is obviously very easy to crack as well. So
why use it if you don't have to?
Doesn't like Nitrile. I can feel it stinging and burning away through the gloves, which usually fall apart 30 seconds later.
Things like Neoprene, PVC and even Tygons super duper new 2375 ultra chemically resistant tubing tend to swell up around it; which is them soaking it
up like a sponge, as opposed to chemically binding to it or being broken down. PTFE and the other fluoropolymers do it too, but it's a reversible
effect once the solvent is gone.
Reference the cap materials to this table, but notice that it says HDPE is not suitable for halogenated hydrocarbons, yet the suppliers send me DCM in HDPE and I've
had it sat in the container for months with no sign of any swelling, melting, warping or failure. Even DuPont, the masters of chemical inertness, say
very clearly "Here's a guide, test it yourself though, because we're not sure of every possible interaction".
It's a colourful table, and a
topic with a spectrum
of tones.
[Edited on 1-9-2010 by peach]
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Chainhit222
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diethyl ether does not store well in snapple bottles for the record
The practice of storing bottles of milk or beer in laboratory refrigerators is to be strongly condemned encouraged
-Vogels Textbook of Practical Organic Chemistry
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smaerd
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@Peach - Thanks for that post, that link is very useful!
@Chainhit222 - I'm pretty much the forum dumb-ass, but what would give anyone the brilliant idea to store diethyl ether in a snapple bottle...
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HydroCarbon
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See if you can get teflon gaskets for your caps, then you'll be golden.
What you have now should be fine though, especially if it's going to be stored in a cool(temperature) place. Polyethylene is very chemical resistant,
and if it's just the cap then you shouldn't worry.
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peach
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I doubt it'll be an issue, but Teflon actually swells up around halogenated solvents. All the fluoropolymer / elastomers do (FEP / PFA / PTFE / ETFE).
As I say, mines in a ..PE 5l container with a standard white screw cap lid. There's no sign whatsoever of it failing or jamming. Which is fairly
impressive given the simplicity and cost, when you see DCM tearing your gloves and bits of tubing to bits.
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jamit
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I just procured some painter stripper and distilled off about 250ml of dichloromethane. I'm going to redistill it to get rid of the methanol and
water that might have also come over... but that's later.
For now I want to store it but having read all the warnings above, I'm anxious about storing it. For now I have it in an amber glass bottle, the same
type of bottle where I store nitric acid and put it into a ziplock bag and into a refrigerator that is used just for storage-- it doesn't work and its
in the garage. It does get quite hot in the summer in the garage... is this a bad idea?
Or would it be ok to store it in a metal container, like the one that contains toulene but is now emptied and dried? The idea of an explosion scares
me. Any ideas?
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BromicAcid
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I put 10 mL DCM in a 25 mL HDPE bottle and taped it shut and weighed it. After a little over a month of holding its own, it started losing weight,
topping out at about a gram a month.
[Edited on 5/28/2011 by BromicAcid]
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jamit
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So whAt happened? Did it slowly exit the hdpe bottle?
So how do you store it?
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BromicAcid
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Yes, it slowly escaped the bottle till it was all gone. The bottle looked fine and did not get soft or anything, the only thing that gave away what
had happened was the label I had put on the bottle. It was glossy label maker tape and there were a few tiny bubbles behind it that were not there
when I put it on. It sat at room temperature on my bench top during this ordeal. The bottle was made by Nalgene and their official stance on HDPE
and DCM per their website is:
"Some effect after 7 days of constant exposure"
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