IrC - 13-4-2010 at 00:00
I am going through my Lanthanides and refilling bottles which have leaked oil. Leaky threads on the lids combined with a road trip have sloshed out
quite a bit, especially my 1/4 lb of Cerium. Not having enough mineral oil from a Lab supply left I was wondering about the drug store type.
Especially since it costs less than half what I see now for the Lab quality. Yet I am hesitant to use it after reading the label which states vitamin
E is added as a stabilizer. Since I use these elements for doping in most of my experiments purity is very important to me. I have no idea if the
vitamin E will contaminate them, especially the more reactive Ce. It will take some time to order and get in the Lab grade oil and as the Ce bottle
was in a box that fell over it is half uncovered, and I am not too happy about an 1/8 lb or so sticking up in the air in the jar. What do you guys
think, is the vitamin E of no concern or a major problem since any impurities caused by the metals reacting with any additives in the oil will
possibly alter doping characteristics.