Sciencemadness Discussion Board - Ingenious glassware applications

Ingenious glassware applications

LearnedAmateur - 20-2-2018 at 14:06

On another thread, alternate glassware to be used as a double jointed gas/atmosphere drying tube was discussed: chromatography reservoirs/columns and air condensers being the two most suitable substitutes. This got me thinking, since I don’t have the money to buy any glassware and needed to do a small distillation, I looked around in the collection I do have. I don’t have access to a water supply for my Liebig condenser, nor will I do chemistry in my bathroom, I had to use an air condenser since solvents don’t condense well in a Liebig with no running water. I opted to use the body for my 10mL pipette as a short condenser with tubing attached to both ends - one to a vacuum adapter on the distillation flask, and the other into a Claisen adapter on the receiving flask (a monstrosity of a setup, I know, but it works!).

What I want to know, and for the sake of creativity, what ad-hoc apparatuses have you guys successfully employed?

wg48 - 20-2-2018 at 14:27

Here is one of mine. Great for large scale and if bought at a thrift store much cheaper than labware .

happyfooddance - 20-2-2018 at 15:37

Pressure cooker boiling pot/ steam generator. Connected with hdpe tubing and hose clamps.

Ziplock bags (2 for safety)+capillary tube+pvc tubing+teflon tape+brass gas-line stopcock+hose clamps = ADDITION FUNNEL(rusted from HCl, but still works!)

[Edited on 2-21-2018 by happyfooddance]

GrayGhost- - 21-2-2018 at 14:30

Quote: Originally posted by wg48

Here is one of mine. Great for large scale and if bought at a thrift store much cheaper than labware .

I tempted concentrate sulfuric acid with this type of cofee glass jar and broken.

hot sulfuric spread :mad:

Melgar - 21-2-2018 at 23:14

I used a $10 pump I bought on eBay to circulate coolant through a series of thermoelectric coolers mounted to a CPU fan. It can keep the water about 10-15 degrees below room temperature. Quite a bit more though, if I dump a bunch of ice in the coolant tank.

KalleMP - 25-3-2018 at 12:23

I was wondering if the sintered glass CO2 aquarium bubbles with the U-shaped stem might be suitable as an emergency Buchner funnel for small batches after the pipe was bent straight.

There are a lot of the these types of bubbler around at reasonable prices but generally they have the bent stem. Some are made from stainless steel. Some have a sintered insert that can be changed. There are various bits of aquarium glass that look like they might have some purpose in a lab but nothing comes to mind just yet.

https://www.google.fi/search?tbm=isch&q=co2+sintered+gla...

It turns out there is one company that makes their bubbler with a straight stem that looks almost exactly like a little bit of lab gear. From their sales material I quote:

The "ELOS ATO10/20 is a handmade, mouth blown CO2 glass-diffuser of top quality .... Italian glass manufacture .... use the best sinter-glass membrane available on the market."

They also have a few other pretty bits of glassware in their collection that might work in some gas chemistry experiments. Unfortunately the ATO20 cost around US$40 so 10 times the price of budget Chinese gear one might elect to order via a web site.

http://www.elosamerica.com/Essential/co2.htm

Might still be an option for OTC lab gear when nothing else is available.

Ubya - 25-3-2018 at 14:54

Quote: Originally posted by KalleMP

I was wondering if the sintered glass CO2 aquarium bubbles with the U-shaped stem might be suitable as an emergency Buchner funnel for small batches after the pipe was bent straight.

There are a lot of the these types of bubbler around at reasonable prices but generally they have the bent stem. Some are made from stainless steel. Some have a sintered insert that can be changed. There are various bits of aquarium glass that look like they might have some purpose in a lab but nothing comes to mind just yet.

It turns out there is one company that makes their bubbler with a straight stem that looks almost exactly like a little bit of lab gear. From their sales material I quote:

Might still be an option for OTC lab gear when nothing else is available.

you nearly read my mind...
i'm planning on buying this kind of CO2 bubbler, i will bend the curved glass tubing (hoping it won't shatter while doing so) and use it to bubble gases (NH3, HCl, Cl2, NO2, etc) in solution to better dissolve them. normally one would use a normal glass tube, or a pipette or maybe even an air stone, but this kind of bubbler has the pros of being all glass, so pretty much inert (not so much in strong hydroxide solution), being cheap and having fritted glass means lots of really small bubbles easy to dissolve in solution, much more efficient at doing so than a pipette ore a simple tube.
ideally is to make something similiar to this but much, much cheaper

Yttrium2 - 25-3-2018 at 15:51

As far as not having access to water, can't you use a hand siphon bump, and an ice bath to run coolant through the condenser?

How much head do the hand pumps have, and or is there an battery powered shower that is recommended?