Sciencemadness Discussion Board

evaporation of chemicals from plastic bottles or?

ScopeGuy - 2-12-2015 at 20:16

I am concerned about possible evaporation of chemicals from plastic bottles. I had about 10 bottle that I ordered come in and they were at different states of fullness.

All bottles were marked LDPE and felt thin. The had various stains, or alcohol solutions in them. All ordered from a place that sells chemicals. Bottles were 30ml or less in size.
Some bottles were 1/2 full, others 1/3 full, others 1/4 full etc. All were clear bottles.

Is this a result of evaporation or poor quality control?

Should I empty them into Amber bottles with the Green PTFE Lined Thermoset Caps.

Advice is much appreciated.

I also got 4 plastic bottles of different powders, there are no marking so them like LDPE so I do not know what they are made of they contain different things like ferric Ammonium sulfate and are in translucent plastic. Whould it be ok to keeo them in there?

I would like to store them for at least several years.

LargeV - 3-12-2015 at 03:59

They are LDPE because they are polyethylene, that's why they are thin.
I store alot of my things if I don't have anywhere else to store them in plastic bottles, and they don't evaporate. Just keep them in a cool area.

Sulaiman - 3-12-2015 at 05:43

I too keep most of my chemicals in the shipping bottles from the supplier, mostly HDPE.
The bottles are good but some of the bottle/cap interfaces are not which can lead to loss by evaporation.
Either do not use a bottle that 'leaks' or fix the leak, cleaning up the mating surface at the top of the bottle with sandpaper helps.

Detonationology - 3-12-2015 at 06:50

I use PTFE plumber's tape on questionable plastic and glass threads. Works great and is cheap.

ScopeGuy - 3-12-2015 at 21:01

Thank you all for the good tips