Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Glass Vials

DavidJR - 15-3-2018 at 09:42

I've been using 30ml polystyrene urine sample tubes extensively, for storage of small amounts of chemicals and for conducting small-scale reactions. They're also very handy for storing small parts. I have a lot of them that I bought when they were discounted to £0.12 each (including vat). I find that these are a very convenient size for my uses.

I've been putting off buying glass vials because of the cost but today I've decided I'm fed up with these plastic ones. I filled one to the top with methyl salicylate a few days ago and put it on the shelf and forgot about it. There's been a lingering wintergreen smell that I didn't think too much of (it's quite pleasant imo) until I looked on the shelf and saw an empty vial surrounded by a pool of liquid. The ester completely dissolved the conical base of the tube and it leaked everywhere, making a mess (has deposited PS everywhere) and damaging the paint on my shelf.

I had a similar incident a while back with ethyl acetate but that instantly frosted the polystyrene so it was obvious immediately.

There are similar sample tubes available in polyethylene and polypropylene which have better chemical resistance, but they aren't water clear and I like to be able to see inside. Glass would obviously be more chemical and heat resistant and is clear.


So, what I'm wondering is, does anyone know of a good UK source for 30ml glass vials? Smaller sizes I can find more easily but I'm having trouble with 30ml ones. I will probably use quite a lot of them so they need to be reasonably cheap. This sort of thing is what I'm looking for but would need to be a lot cheaper than that.

Sidmadra - 15-3-2018 at 14:47

I couldn't imagine using Polystyrene as a container, way too many reagents and solvents dissolve it. You want HDPE.

For small quantities of solids, I often go to Arts and Crafts stores, where they usually have small screw top HDPE containers from 25-50ml, among many others. Not sure on UK specific stores, but Craft stores are everywhere. They sell them for buttons, and all kinds of other arts and crafts things.

Those ^ are really cheap and easy to get. It's going to be difficult to beat HDPE in terms of container chemical resistance, unless you go up to glass. I personally don't bother with glass for small quantities of reagents. I wouldn't want to drop them and have them break, and so far I haven't encountered many reagents that eat through HDPE at room temperature. I would go with HDPE if I were you. Otherwise, you can find glass vials online fairly easily I'm sure.

Melgar - 15-3-2018 at 21:07

30 mL is one fluid ounce. You typically call that size a "bottle" rather than a "vial".

I use HDPE bottles and vials myself, but HDPE is ultimately permeable by nonpolar substances, and if you put certain things in them, the smell and/or color will never go away. Try putting some elemental iodine in one and seeing if you can ever make it lose the yellow-orange color after that.

Dr.Bob - 16-3-2018 at 05:43

Technically, I have always seen containers that are straight walls called vials up to 40 and 60 mls and jars above that, but containers with narrower tops than bottoms are often called bottles. But every company has different names.

You can find various small bottles for liquids on Ebay and Amazon and other sites, but hard to just buy a few. If you were in the US, it is easy to find them, I have lots available, as do some others. But in the UK, you may want to try to get up with some other UK SciMad people (there are quite a few) to order a few things in bulk and split them, as shipping costs to Europe are very high now from the US. But within EU I would guess is better, not sure.

VSEPR_VOID - 16-3-2018 at 08:38

You could use conical tubes. If you go to a high school with a Biotechnology program they will toss hundreds of them a year. The ones used are 60ml and 30ml. You can also buy them on Carolina or other similar sites.

https://www.carolina.com/biotechnology-lab-supplies/disposab...

DavidJR - 17-3-2018 at 16:18

Actually this is a reasonable deal:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wheaton-127030-Tubular-Fitted-Unive...

I don't really need 500 though, anyone want to split these?

edit: I've gone ahead and ordered these. If anyone (in the UK) wants some I'm happy to sell some of them at cost. I'd want to keep roughly half of them. If not I'll probably list them on eBay.

[Edited on 18-3-2018 by DavidJR]

DavidJR - 20-3-2018 at 08:01

The courier just came. These are exactly what I wanted :D (it's probably not normal to get this excited over glass vials, but oh well)



IMG_0840.jpg - 1.2MB

Old polystyrene tube on the left, (2) new glass tubes on the right.

VSEPR_VOID - 20-3-2018 at 16:42

Those are some very nice samples

DavidJR - 21-3-2018 at 05:55

Copper nitrate and para-benzoquinone (aka bastard hell crystals).

VSEPR_VOID - 21-3-2018 at 16:11

I am preparing copper nitrate myself. The solution is much darker but shares the same sky blue in more dilute forms

18thTimeLucky - 26-3-2018 at 10:23

Just received the 50 vials I bought from DavidJR. I am very happy with the price and they were packaged well and received quickly. The vials were just what I was wanting, perfect size to use for storing both liquids and solids.

IMG_8207[1].JPG - 1.5MBIMG_8208[1].JPG - 2.3MBIMG_8210[1].JPG - 1.4MB

DavidJR - 26-3-2018 at 10:33

Glad to hear they made it intact (you know what royal mail is like...). Thanks for buying :)