Chemical containers?

[Michael Guzzi]

The caps are as important as the bottles themselves. Would you mind telling us which caps worked best for you?

 

[mshchem]

PET plastic bottles provide an excellent air/oxygen barrier. They are used as soda and seltzer bottles; they keep oxygen out to protect chemicals as well keeping carbonation in when used as soda bottles. I use 1-liter plain seltzer bottles (2 liter bottles are also available). Other features are they can be squeezed to a large degree to remove air from headspace, have strong caps, and are basically free. Because they are clear, they need to be stored in the dark (or a plastic tote, which you want to do anyway to contain any spills or leaks).

I have used soda bottles had great luck. I buy PET amber "Boston Rounds" 32, 16, 8, 4, oz bottles from Freund Container, they will sell you 1 bottle or 1 million. You can choose your cap. I would caution not to use PET with E-6 Color Developer it embrittles the plastic and they can crack. I keep stock XTOL for 18 months in full (Absolutely full) bottles. I have used 32 oz amber glass bottles, with poly-seal cone liner lids, definitely the gold standard.
I worked as a chemist and we would eliminate dissolved air in pure water by sparging (bubbling) with Helium gas. The government was paying for that, not very economical for a darkroom. . Most liquid chemicals come polyethylene bottles (Like Jobo) very chemical resistant but you can't see whats inside.
Best Mike

 

[AgX]

PET is affected by strong caustic solution, it will crack.

 

[mshchem]

PET is affected by strong caustic solution, it will crack.

Just to clarify It was one of the E-6 concentrates (Part 1 of the color developer) that caused the PET bottle to crack. I split 5L Tetenal kits into 8 x 625mL batches. This works great. I have substituted polyethylene for the part 1 and the concentrates keep very well split into full small PET bottles. This is the only time I've had a problem with PET with darkroom solutions.
Best Regards, Mike