Recommendation for Molecular Sieve Bead Product

Topic created by Tonto
on Sun, 20 Feb 2022 at 06:18

Tonto said on Sun, 20 Feb 2022 at 06:18...

There have been many discussions on this forum regarding the use of Molecular Sieve Beads to absorb water or moisture in popper bottles during storage. I investigated the availability of this type of product on Amazon.com and found several different products offering different sizes of beads. Can someone please provide me a recommendation on the specific name of a product and size bead that would be best for placing in my popper bottles to help absorb water or moisture. Thank you very much for your time, consideration, and assistance in this matter!

Charlie said on Fri, 11 Mar 2022 at 22:41...

Your post is old, but maybe this will still be helpful.

From what I know, you ideally want 3A 8-12 mesh. 4A will also work, but 3A are better.

As for specific products, the best ones are expensive and available "almost" exclusively to commercial customers. If you search hard enough, you will find some lab-grade 3A, but they run about $100-130+ for 500g. There are some cheaper 4A on eBay from a California-based supplier, but based on my experience they do not seem to be extremely effective.

Bottom line, if you want quality 3A, expect to pay about $100+ for 500g at the moment. Many are out of stock at the moment and have been for some time. You can order directly from Sigma Aldrich or Cole Parmer if you have a commercial address.

Tonto said on Sat, 12 Mar 2022 at 04:33...

@Charlie: Thank you very, very much for taking the time to provide me a detailed and considerate response to my question.
The information in your response will be very helpful and I will conduct a search for a 3A 8-12 mesh product.
Thanks again for your time and assistance!!

Charlie said on Mon, 14 Mar 2022 at 18:08...

If you do not have lab equipment to dry them, the hardest part for me has been finding truly activated sieves. The low-cost ones on eBay from a California-supplier do not seem up to the job. Either they are low quality or they are not active. I get very little response from them. The supplier claims they are active, but I have had better success with activated alumina than the eBay sieves. From what I understand, activated alumina has less consistent pore structure than sieves though. (I am no expert. This is only what I recall having learned.) I have found drying sieves in a household microwave or oven has not been effective.

If you decide to buy high quality lab-grade, they are indeed pre-activated as I have confirmed from Sigma-Aldrich themselves. In most cases, you will need an account and commercial address to order from one of the lab supply companies. Smaller lab-supply middle companies have been unwilling to tell me who supplies their product so that is a crap shoot.

Low-quality and inexpensive sieves on Amazon will most likely not work unless you have lab equipment to prepare them for use.

From my research about sieves, you will need to spend around $100-$130 for 500g of high-quality 3A sieves to make sure that they are 1) pre-activated and 2) high quality and up to the task. You could spend a lot, if not more money, getting inferior results from inferior sieves (been down that road).

FredCain said on Sat, 2 Jul 2022 at 20:46...

I recently picked up some 3A from the "jungle" - $20 for 2 lb. Did the test by putting a few in the palm and adding a drop of water. They literally blistered my skin. I would say they are plenty activated!