johnny_questions
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Where to buy - Boiling Chips
Good day,
This is my first post on these forums and I would like to start by thanking everyone for all the insightful information that I have found here. My
question today is for those of you living in Canada, I am looking for a good lab supplies company that sells to consumers and offers carbon boiling
chips at a reasonable price. Anyone know of such a business or website?
Thanks,
Jim
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Sulaiman
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I do not know of a supplier
but the carbon rods in 6V lantern batteries are made to be porous
maybe a suitable substitute ?
(ater the dirty work of battery dissection (keep the high purity no-mercury zinc pots), burning/vapourising off the wax, breaking into sections,
chemically cleaning and drying 
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Texium
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Depending on what you're doing, even just using some chunks of clean, natural marble or granite would work if it doesn't contain acid that could react
with it, especially if you're distilling and it won't contaminate your product.
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DraconicAcid
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Break a ceramic bowl into chunks.
Please remember: "Filtrate" is not a verb.
Write up your lab reports the way your instructor wants them, not the way your ex-instructor wants them.
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macckone
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In the us rosching rings are available from brewing suppliers.
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johnny_questions
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All great ideas, thanks. I am not especially satisfied with the thought of potentially unknown contaminants from say marble/granite or ceramic chunks.
Any suggestions on a method of thoroughly cleaning such things?
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Amos
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All of my boiling chips are pieces of very pure quartz from local geodes. They're rugged and do an excellent job. If that's something you can come by
easily, I'd give it a try. Strong acids should work well to clean any robust silicon dioxide-based material.
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careysub
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How about the silica gel that comes in those little packets everyone gets in packages?
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crystal grower
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Try activated carbon for aquarium filters.
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ganger631
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Why dont people suggest regular lime glass? I use chipped glass from glass bottle and use them as boiling chip for distilling sulfuric acid. No
problem so far.
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diddi
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I use smashed up quartz also 
Beginning construction of periodic table display
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macckone
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Aquarium cbarcoal is going to have contaminants that while safe for fish may not be good for reactions. You want food grade charcoal from a brewing
supply. It will be free of anything that would impart taste. Glass is good but tends to lack pores for nucleation. Silica gel will be pretty pure and
have pores. Ceramics do not contain volatiles but some metal oxides may dissolve in strong acids. Most rings are ceramic but are made from
components are generally confined to alumina silicates with sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium as additions.
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100PercentChemistry
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Depending on the use I use broken glass rods 
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hissingnoise
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I have tried quartz chips and found that they leave visible scratches in flasks!
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Mailinmypocket
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Check an aquarium supply store. There are some filter medias that are highly porous material, they vary in dentities but they serve as support medium
for biological filters. Break that up (or buy a variety with smaller grains, some are the size of actual boiling chips) and they work a treat for the
purpose of being boiling chips!
Biological Filter Media
Note to self: Tare the damned flask.
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S.C. Wack
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...carborundum...
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johnny_questions
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I've given the idea of cutting open a Brita filter some serious thought. Is there any difference between activated charcoal for say a water filter and
Walter stern 501A grade boiling chips?
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Mailinmypocket
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You're just looking for something inert enough (depending on what chemicals it's interacting with) and with lots of pointy edges to provide nucleation
points. Boiling chips are just that. I would take boiling chips before anything but otherwise charcoal, aquarium bio-support ceramic stuff or broken
dishes work best. The bio media stuff is made to have many surfaces for the bacteria to colonize
Like this:
[Edited on 22-5-2016 by Mailinmypocket]
Note to self: Tare the damned flask.
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johnny_questions
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Matrix by seachem shown above is actually available near me for pretty cheap and according to the SDS is 100% pumice which I believe (correct me if
I'm wrong) can withstand even conc sulfuric acid quite well. Hmm! I think I found my solution...
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careysub
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Quote: Originally posted by johnny_questions  | | Matrix by seachem shown above is actually available near me for pretty cheap and according to the SDS is 100% pumice which I believe (correct me if
I'm wrong) can withstand even conc sulfuric acid quite well. Hmm! I think I found my solution... |
Pumice is of variable composition. Any explosive gas release in molten magma creates pumice - its formation is a mechanical process - and so its
composition depends entirely on the magma from which it formed.
You''ll want to test your pumice with acid and base I expect to check for stability in those conditions.
The fact that pumice generally floats on water may need to be taken into account (but might well sink in lighter solvents). Since bumping usually
starts on the bottom of a flask this may not be desirable. I had thought about perlite, but did not suggest it because it is so extremely light.
I should also mention two types of highly porous inert hydroponic media which should work very well: LECA (lightweight expanded clay aggregate) and
growstones. The former are round pellets, which you would probably want to crack into pieces and the latter are irregular chunks. Growstone is pure
glass, LECA is clay fired at a very high temperature.
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johnny_questions
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LECA seems like a messy option given the amount of dust it creates and growstone isn't readily available in my area, what about ceramic rings? How do
you gents feel the following would compare to say lab grade column packing raschig rings?
http://www.amazon.com/Fluval-Biomax-Bio-Rings-ounces/dp/B000...
Cheers,
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RogueRose
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I broke a glass earlier and thought I would try using it for boiling chips and it seems there are no bubbles coming off of them as compared to the
ceramic chips I have in the flask.
Is this because the sides of the glass are too smooth?
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