Shelf Life of Chemicals (Hydrochloric Acid, Sulfuric Acid, Dimethylformamide)

[componenthunter]

I came into a few glass containers of the above mentioned chemicals (Hydrochloric Acid, Sulfuric Acid, Dimethylformamide).
They are all sealed and unopened in their respective boxes...but they've been sitting around for many years.
Are they still usable?? Does anyone have experience using 'new old stock' chemicals?? Thank you!

 

[Yggdrasil]

I came into a few glass containers of the above mentioned chemicals (Hydrochloric Acid, Sulfuric Acid, Dimethylformamide).
They are all sealed and unopened in their respective boxes...but they've been sitting around for many years.
Are they still usable?? Does anyone have experience using 'new old stock' chemicals?? Thank you!

Welcome
Well it’s an unusual question.
You can search the net for the actual chemical and decomposition or similar.

How old are these?

They should be usable for many years under most circumstances.
As long as they are properly stored and not opened, they might be fine.

 

[orvi]

Hydrochloric and sulfuric acid, as well as nitric acid, stored in amber glass bottles with classic screw cap are fine practically indefinitely. Only weak point is the cap. It it isn´t with PTFE circle on the inside of the cap, espetially nitric will eat the plastic above and make it fragile.
This is main cause of accidental bottle spillage of chemicals in the lab. Somebody grasp the bottle by the cap which disintegrate in hand, dropping and shattering the bottle to the floor be careful about this, check the caps and if they are fragile, replace them.

But for hydrochloric and sulfuric acid, if they are classic PE inside, they should be fine.

To the dimethylformamide (DMF): DMF is toxic, penetrates skin easily and has mutagenic and carcinogenic effects. As it has fairly high boiling point (like 150°C+), it does not evaporate that significantly. Be sure not to spill any on your hands. It is a very good solvent tho, capable of disintegrating many resins and swelling plastics - so useful for processing e-waste in some ways. But you need to use good fume hood, wear proper PPE and dispose the organic waste responsibly.

 

[componenthunter]

Welcome
Well it’s an unusual question.
You can search the net for the actual chemical and decomposition or similar.

How old are these?

They should be usable for many years under most circumstances.
As long as they are properly stored and not opened, they might be fine.

If they were only 25 years old...would you hold them against me?
But yes, they are old af, but they are still in their unopened shipping boxes...So I guess I'll leave them that way until ready to use.

 

[AuggieDog]

In 2007, I got several amber bottles of nitric and sulphuric from the 1930's when I bought out an estate. It was actually that discovery and research that lead me to recovery and refining. That acid was fine for use. The nitric was reagent grade and nearly pure, I didn't know the difference back then. I still have some of the sulphuric. Wish I came up on more acid that way with what it costs nowadays.