Day: August 19, 2013

12:57 – Have I mentioned that I hate working with hygroscopic solids? I just finished filling 80 bottles with anhydrous calcium chloride, which is not just hygroscopic but deliquescent. Fortunately, the stuff is prills rather than powder. Prilling reduces surface area enough that I was able to fill bottles without going to extremes to keep the stuff dry. Also fortunately, I’d ordered ten 500 g bottles rather than one 5 kg bottle. That was pure chance; one 5 kg bottle cost more than ten 500 g bottles. But boy am I glad that I got the smaller bottles. I’d forgotten how much of a pain in the ass anhydrous calcium chloride is to work with, at least if you want it to stay anhydrous. As it was, I was able to open a 500 g bottle, quickly fill and cap sixteen 30 mL pharma packer bottles, and then move on to the next batch. I’ve also filled batches of petroleum ether and 95% ethanol, which I now need to label and tape the caps of.

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