Molecular Sieve

Topic created by Rush Options
on Wed, 10 Nov 2021 at 03:24

Rush Options said on Wed, 10 Nov 2021 at 03:24...

Looking for some guidance please. Will be placing on online order for molecular sieves and have found a vendor with the following description of their product. Is this what I should order??? Thanks!

This bag contains both blue moisture indicating molecular sieve and also normal molecular sieve. The blue molecular sieve is a sodium alumina silicate molecular sieve impregnated with an inorganic metal salt moisture indicator. The desiccant will perform as a 4a molecular sieve plus with the additional ability to visually determine when the molecular sieve reaches saturation. When active, the molecular sieve beads are blue, as the beads reach saturation the color changes to beige indicating that the molecular sieve has reached equilibrium capacity and is in need of replacement. While the white molecular sieve is an alkali alumino-silicate in the spherical form. It is the sodium form of the Type A crystal structure with an effective pore opening of approximately 4A. It will adsorb molecules such as oxygen, nitrogen, carbon dioxide and straight chain hydrocarbons. Aromatics and branched chain hydrocarbons will not be absorbed.

Rush Options said on Wed, 10 Nov 2021 at 03:27...

Additional technical specifications:
Specifications:

Type: 4A
Bead Size: 4mm
Includes Blue moisture indicating beads
Nominal Pore Opening: 4 Angstroms
Equilibrium Water Capacity @ 25°C: >= 22% Weight
Heat of Adsorption: 1800 BTU/lb of H2O
Note: All sizes will come in 2lb packs.

The Professor said on Wed, 10 Nov 2021 at 18:02...

MS4 is suitable, MS3 would be slightly better. 2lbs is quite a bit. Is this pre-activated? If you go through quite a bit of it, 2 or 5 lbs at a time might suitable. Personally, if I didn't have access to lab equipment to reactivate them, I'd stick with buying pre-activated sieve: a vendor named loudwolf sells pre-activated MS4 on Amazon in small amounts

The Professor said on Wed, 10 Nov 2021 at 18:02...

Rush Options said on Thu, 11 Nov 2021 at 16:51...

@The Professor - I will check out Loudwolf. Thank you!

BigdeeDubba said on Wed, 17 Nov 2021 at 20:26...

Mol sieve does not work well, if you are trying to keep your poppers dry and preserve them use potassium carbonate. You can find it on sites like amazon. It is a descant so it will remove water and it will also absorb any acid byproducts that form over time. This will 100% work way better and improve the life of your poppers. I have been using this for years

The Professor said on Thu, 18 Nov 2021 at 19:09...

BigdeeDubba

Potassium carbonate works as an acid scavenger (the carbonate part) and stops gas buildup in sealed containers (the alkali metallic salt part). It is very useful in preventing pressure buildup and explosion of alkyl nitrites that are manufactured in thin walled, sealed glass ampoules.

NOt that it's a deal breaker, monetarily, but i bet you already have baking soda in your house. Baking soda will neutralize acid just as well as k-carb, and it's much less expensive.

k-carb by itself doesn't sequester water molecules like activated alumina or molecular sieve does; it is slightly deliquescent, but any water that it attracts isn't hidden away from the popper liquid as it would be with sieves.

3 angstrom molecular sieve will get an alkyl nitrite dry within 20 parts per million; i haven't found anything that does aDsorption better than molecular sieve.