mauricethegangsteroflove
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Distillation with rubber stoppers
I was gifted a box of glassware recently (many flasks, beakers, volumetric cylinders, tubing, and random assorted goodies), and it's of the old
fashioned sort that takes rubber stoppers rather than ground glass joints. I am putting together a proper ground glass setup for future use, but in
the meantime I'm curious what can safely be used with this.
I'd like to try some small scale distillations of some solvents, like diethyl ether, dioxane, chloroform, etc. I'd also like to attempt to distill a
small amount of nitric acid.
How much of this is feasible with rubber stoppers and bent glass tubes? I know nitric acid especially will not be kind to such a setup for repeated
use, but I suspect it will work once or twice. the solvents I don't expect to be much of an issue but I may as well ask to be safe.
Everyone I've seen doing this uses ground glass (and I intend to when possible), but can I safely run a distillation with what I have now?
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bariumbromate
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Btw nitric acid sets rubber on fire 
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mauricethegangsteroflove
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That sounds suboptimal.
I was aware it sets nitrile on fire, but just thought it ate up other kinds of rubber relatively quickly.
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Sulaiman
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just a few thoughts.....
1) rubber bungs and glass tubing may give you the mark of the chemist
https://youtu.be/Wn9qxPKkRDw?si=WQFbsxny1wdw9NA3
2) hot conc. nitric or sulphuric will make a mess of rubber bungs
3) wrapping a rubber bung in domestic cling film can add resistance to solvents
as can smearing with silicone grease
I've not tried but I've read that wrapping a rubber bung in plumbers ptfe tape helps
CAUTION : Hobby Chemist, not Professional or even Amateur
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mauricethegangsteroflove
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It'll be a moot point in a few weeks when I have the proper ground glass distillation apparatus, so i suppose I'll wait until then. I suspect this
could probably be done once before the stopper gave out, particularly in the small quantity I am thinking of, but I'd rather not test that assumption
on my first time playing with HNO3.
Thanks for your input
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macckone
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Ptfe plumber's tape protects rubber stoppers from aggressive chemicals
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Sulaiman
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two things about conc. nitric :
1) it is sneaky stuff..delayed then volcanic reactions with many substances
2) many of its reactions release copious quantities of choking NO2 gas
unlikely to be lethal but an ever present risk.
CAUTION : Hobby Chemist, not Professional or even Amateur
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