Plastic and Basified Water

[Ansar]

I have a question about plastic eyedroppers and turkey basters during extraction. After you put NaOH in the water and it becomes basified, how does the water effect plastic? I tried a quick google search and didn't find much. I have plastic eyedroppers and a plastic turkey baster but I'm wondering if I should look around more and get glass ones. Does anyone know if the plastic can leak into the basified water?

 

[endlessness]

What kind of plastic is it? Can you find out?

 

[Ansar]

It doesn't say on it what kind of plastic it is, I'm probably going to get some glass ones just to be safe. I used the plastic ones on an extraction and didn't have any problems, I didn't notice anything wrong with the plastic afterwards and the dmt came out good. But just out of curiosity does anyone know what happens to plastic in heavily basic water?

 

[Ice House]

I know of a couple of half gallon mason jars that have been housing basified bark and or solvent for almost 4 years on a continuos basis. They have been shaken, rolled, heated and frozen without incident. I cant even imagine, anymore, how much spice may or may not have come out of them.:twisted:

Those jars will most certainly continue to be used in that same manner without incident for many years to come. IMO:lol:

Sorry, I cannot help you regarding your question about basified plastics as I have no experience with them.

If you are interested in resolving any problems you may have with plastic containers please refer to the opening statement above.

P.S.

If I was considering using plastic, I would never use any plastic that was not clearly marked with the proper international marking/lable. Your safety and health may depend on it.:shock:

 

[Ansar]

I did some more research and I found a couple sites with some good info.

It looks like HDPE plastic is safe:
Certified Lye - Safety Precautions for Lye (Sodium Hydroxide)
"Lye should be stored in air-tight plastic containers made of HDPE."
From this quote it looks like sodium hydroxide doesn't damage HDPE plastic so that should be fine.

And PET plastic (the plastic in bottled water and stuff like that) is questionable:
polyesters - terylene and PET
I don't know much about chemistry so if anyone else is more informed you should check it out. From the diagram at the bottom it looks like the NaOH is attaching to the plastic and is releasing HOCH2CH2OH. A quick search found that its Ethylene glycol. It's a oderless, colorless, syrupy liquid with a sweet taste.

A safety report on Ethylene glycol:
http://www.health-report.co.uk/ethylene_glycol_propylene_glycol.htm
Looks like it can cause death in "very large" doses and can nausea in "large doses".

So it looks like HDPE plastic is safe and PET plastic is not safe, unfortunately my plastic doesn't have what type it is printed on it.

 

[endlessness]

The other thing with any plastic that isnt considered, is plasticizers which are often in plastic containers and can come across to the final product. If one salts out the dmt, for example with fumaric acid solution, and later washes the salts with acetone or IPA, that would help eliminating potential plastic/plasticizer traces.

 

[lohes]

HDPE plastics are the ones with the recycling number 2, bulk vinegar containers are a good option. The cap might not be HDPE though, be careful