Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Custom Quartz Glassware on eBay?

JJay - 6-5-2017 at 23:27

I noticed that this new seller claims to be selling custom quartz glass on eBay: http://www.ebay.com/itm/500ml-3-neck-three-neck-round-bottom...

If I were to take a guess based on the price of the one item available for sale, I'd think that the prices are probably not bad for quartz labware. I don't see much feedback yet, though... research suggests that this might be a new storefront for Donghai Yukang Quartz Material, which has been in business for at least a few years, but I'm not 100% sure... I know I sure would like to buy some Chinese quartz directly from the manufacturer....

Sulaiman - 7-5-2017 at 00:57

It occurs to me that just adding a quartz flask to a borosilicate kit could be a disaster,
Borosilicate male joints would expand more than quartz female joints,
Resulting in cracks or frozen joints.
Just thought I'd mention it in case someone tries.

JJay - 7-5-2017 at 01:04

If you are buying quartz glass, you should probably know that already. Some manufacturers make transition pieces that have a quartz-to-borosilicate transition if you want to put both quartz and borosilicate glassware in the same apparatus. Although as long as you aren't exposing the borosilicate glass to high temperatures, it isn't usually a problem (look at the difference in the coefficients of expansion of PTFE and borosilicate glass and you'll see what I mean).

macckone - 7-5-2017 at 08:22

PTFE tends to be able to bend/compress/stretch which glass cannot.
That is why PTFE works well with glass. PTFE is 'plastic' in the
physical sense so it does not break glass which is 'brittle'.

JJay - 7-5-2017 at 13:57

I'm not sure what gives you the idea that PTFE doesn't break glass; I've personally seen glass with a PTFE stir bearing in it break when heated, and the break did not occur at the point of the most stress; the break occurred at the bearing. The differences in the coefficients of expansion are far greater for PTFE and borosilicate than borosilicate and quartz. PTFE is preferred over glass in labware mainly only in situations where there is concern that the joint might get frozen if all-glass construction is used.

I was told by a quartz labware salesperson that quartz-to-borosilicate transitions aren't usually necessary as long as the borosilicate male connectors are out of the "hot zone"--although they are more than willing to provide quartz stoppers and transition pieces.

While it is true that this falls short of a calculation of the appropriate modulus and the necessary deformation by temperature as well as the compressive force, I haven't ever personally taken a statics class, so I'm a little reluctant to offer up those calculations myself. I do point out, though, that the compressive moduluses of PTFE, quartz, and borosilicate glass are similar. As anyone who has handled a window pane (or fiberglass) knows, glass does bend. And as anyone who has handled PTFE stock knows, PTFE is extremely rigid.

[Edited on 8-5-2017 by JJay]

JJay - 7-5-2017 at 17:26

I'm currently in negotiations with the seller and am going to try to get some quartz distillation flasks listed. They have vanilla ones ready for purchase. I personally want one with a ground quartz stopper and an N24 male joint.

Oh and research confirms that this is straight from the manufacturer, Donghai Yukang Quartz Material.

[Edited on 8-5-2017 by JJay]

Sulaiman - 8-5-2017 at 02:43

I would like quartz glassware ... who would not ?
If I had spare cash I'd have everything in quartz
but in quartz I would at least want a flask and something like a Claisen-Vigreaux adapter
Untitled.jpg - 13kB
or a 90 degree adapter and combustion tube etc.
I guess an absolute minimum would be flask + Claisen or flask + (air condenser/Hempel column,
allowing the quartz-borosilicate joints to be cooler than the flask.
... and stainless steel Keck clips.



Why do you want a male joint on the flask ?
. more likely to have liquid leakage
. the compression of the joint when hot (gravity, clip) would mean breakage on cooling rather than heating

I'm not being awkward for the sake of it,
I guess what I mean is,
don't be seduced by the beauty of quartz before you have a complete plan ;)

JJay - 8-5-2017 at 06:37

A column is undesirable for distilling sulfuric acid or most other things you'd want to distill in quartz (such as aluminum bromide, for example). The Snyder Claisen adapter you have pictured would be outrageously expensive. I'm not sure what you would use it for either... fractionating mercury-gallium mixtures??

If a break does occur at the male joint (unlikely), it will be the $11 borosilicate adapter breaking, not the $$$ quartz flask.

LD5050 - 8-5-2017 at 07:41

what are the advantages of quartz im curious? is quartz a lot better than borosillicate?

JJay - 8-5-2017 at 07:51

You can heat quartz to red hot and then quench it in ice water without any breakage. I've done it. It has a higher working temperature too.

I personally would not buy a quartz 3-neck flask unless I planned on having an all quartz setup, but quartz test tubes and retorts definitely have their uses.

Funkerman23 - 8-5-2017 at 13:58

I'm glad I am not the only one who noticed that ebay seller. JJay: what kind of flask ,specifically, are you referring to? A long single neck flask might be helpful for sulfuric, but if you have an image of what you are negotiating for, I would be very grateful. I've had a Hell of a time finding a cost effective way to get to 400C...

Funkerman23 - 8-5-2017 at 14:52

I'm glad I am not the only one who noticed that ebay seller. JJay: what kind of flask ,specifically, are you referring to? A long single neck flask might be helpful for sulfuric, but if you have an image of what you are negotiating for, I would be very grateful. I've had a Hell of a time finding a cost effective way to get to 400C...

JJay - 8-5-2017 at 14:55

They carry these as a stock item:

$_12.jpg - 29kB

What I want is something like this:



Untitled.png - 24kB


JJay - 8-5-2017 at 21:04

The differences in expansion for an N24 joint (if I'm calculating this correctly) are just under 1/1000 of an inch over a 300 C temperature change for quartz and borosilicate glass. I'm pretty sure that if a borosilicate female joint can withstand being heated to 200 C and then plunged into ice water, it should be able to interface directly with a quartz male joint at 325 C (if not, the transition adapters aren't that outrageously expensive).

Something like this could be used for distilling sulfuric acid, sodium, potassium, aluminum bromide, mercury, phosphorus, bibenzyl, bitumen, hexadecanol, etc. over a flame (or in a 1000 C furnace), with an inert atmosphere if necessary.

JJay - 18-5-2017 at 00:13

Well, I just ordered a custom quartz distillation flask with ground quartz joints. I specified that the distillation arm be only 30mm above the bulb. I am super stoked about this.

[Edited on 18-5-2017 by JJay]

JJay - 23-5-2017 at 18:54

I heard from the seller today, and my quartz distillation flask is ready. My plan is to wrap a copper coil around the side arm and connect it to a regular condenser. I can heat the bulb over a flame or perhaps build a furnace.

Untitled.jpg - 177kB

JJay - 15-6-2017 at 22:29

I tried out my new flask yesterday, distilling some sulfuric acid. My initial attempts at wrapping copper tubing failed (will try again with packed copper tubing), so I simply connected a 24/40 borosilicate Vigreux column as condenser without any special cooling. It worked well without any damage and was easy to remove with a blowtorch following the distillation.

You can buy a flask just like it here: http://www.ebay.com/itm/500ml-Customized-Quartz-Distilling-F...

Morgan - 16-6-2017 at 08:27

Not on eBay but kind of nice little bottles.
https://image.ec21.com/image/highborn11/oimg_GC03655044_CA07...
http://image.made-in-china.com/2f0j00bKYTQLVtshoy/Quartz-Bot...

Loptr - 30-9-2022 at 03:42

Quote: Originally posted by JJay  
I heard from the seller today, and my quartz distillation flask is ready. My plan is to wrap a copper coil around the side arm and connect it to a regular condenser. I can heat the bulb over a flame or perhaps build a furnace.



And here I am 5 years later ordering a 1L quartz distillation flask with 24/40 joints from Donghai Yukang Quartz Material.

The cost is extremely good compared to a few other USA-based quartz manufacturers.

Would anyone else be interested in purchasing one as well?

[Edited on 30-9-2022 by Loptr]

Dr.Bob - 30-9-2022 at 10:46

Another source for quartz is prism glass, located here in NC, just a few miles away. They are much smaller now than before, but they have specialized equipment for quartz work, and might be less pricey now that they are smaller, but I don't know. They made some UV transparent glassware for me many years back, and did a great job. Doubt they can complete with Chinese cost, but shipping might be less, and likely much faster.

www.prismresearchglass.com

pneumatician - 1-10-2022 at 05:58

The ebay links don't work...

Mateo_swe - 4-10-2022 at 03:46

Because they are very old, items on ebay are not forever.
Unless its a very established company selling on ebay, they usually have their shops for longer times.

Loptr - 10-10-2022 at 18:27

Quote: Originally posted by pneumatician  
The ebay links don't work...


Yes, the seller no longer seems to be on ebay--almost as though they forgot they had that account. They seem to have taken it down after I contacted them.

I have sent them the funds for the new quartz flask. Now its the waiting game.

I will post back once I have more to share. The price was a lot better than other quartz glassware manufacturers I had spoken with recently.

[Edited on 11-10-2022 by Loptr]

Loptr - 4-11-2022 at 10:09

The 1L quartz distillation flask arrived! Wow, the quality is top notch. It arrived packaged in a mini-shipping crate, so it could probably survive quite a tumble in transit.



Compress_20221104_141028_8986.jpg - 104kB Compress_20221104_141029_9663.jpg - 76kB Compress_20221104_141028_8336.jpg - 112kB Compress_20221104_141027_7547.jpg - 98kB Compress_20221104_141027_7739.jpg - 81kB

[Edited on 4-11-2022 by Loptr]

Herr Haber - 4-11-2022 at 11:32

Looks great! How much was that + shipping ?

Looking at their packaging, the interval between your posts and their website they seem very interesting.
https://www.ykquartz.com/

Loptr - 4-11-2022 at 11:36

Quote: Originally posted by Herr Haber  
Looks great! How much was that + shipping ?

Looking at their packaging, the interval between your posts and their website they seem very interesting.
https://www.ykquartz.com/


$160 + $70 shipping

Once it was shipped, it was here in only a couple days. There was some sort of customs issues that was resolved in hours. I would definitely recommend them, and plan on additional quartz glassware from them in the future.

[Edited on 4-11-2022 by Loptr]