Your 5L flask reminded me, I've noticed multiple times that a seemingly larg-ish flask isn't that large after all. After all reagents, solvents and
other adjuncts, the actual useful amount of desired reagent/product might be only in scale of few hundred grams.
So, if making ANYTHING for any sort of production use, flasks very quickly scale to start from 10, 20 liters and so on. Clandestine chemists who make
stuff that people want to pay premium can easily deal with smaller amounts, but some secondary reagent that doesn't cost that much at all, will not
have any second more wasted time than absolutely necessary. Usually the operator time is one of the most expensive factors, although one chemist can
run many reaction setups at the same time, because most modern pilot plants are very autonomic and programmable. |