Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Storage of MEK

Chemgineer - 15-10-2021 at 07:26

I bought 5 litres of methyl ethyl ketone online and it arrived in an HDPE bottle, is this a safe material to store MEK in? I am tempted to move it into some glass bottles and i'm not sure if the current one has softened.

Tsjerk - 15-10-2021 at 07:31

I noticed the bottle (HDPE, PE or PP, will check later) my MEK is stored in has deformed because of warm/cold cycles. I think when the bottle gets warm it degasses, while it doesn't suck back in air when it cools, so the whole bottle got a triangular shape. When I would do anything sensitive with the MEK I would probably distill it first. The bottle actually was already deformed when I bought it, but it got worse over time.

Edit: My bottle says "OTHER", which might be good, or might be bad. Don't know.

https://barcode-labels.com/plastics-and-label-applications-u...


[Edited on 15-10-2021 by Tsjerk]

Jenks - 15-10-2021 at 17:57

One consideration is that organic solvents tend to diffuse through plastic but not glass. You have probably noticed how rubber stoppers deform when exposed to some solvents, so of course those solvents can pass through the rubber too. I received methylene chloride in a polypropylene bottle once and half of it had diffused through before I noticed and moved it to a glass bottle.

ManyInterests - 19-10-2021 at 21:49

They sell MEK where I live and they store it in steel cans.

artemov - 20-10-2021 at 04:08

My MEK in a cheap clear glass bottle seems to get more and more yellow very quickly with time.

macckone - 20-10-2021 at 06:54

artemov,

ketones need to be protected from light. They do aldol condensations if there are the slightest impurities and they can be catalyzed by light.