Are these materials safe for use with alcohol?

[masterofceremonies]

Hello! I am interested in using an Aerobie Aeropress to filter alcohol infusions, and I'm wondering if the materials used will be safe to run alcohol through. Please read below for the official email I received from Aerobie:

 

"With regard to your question about alcohol and the AeroPress coffee maker, we don't know. All the materials used in the manufacture of the AeroPress are what is called FDA grade for use in contact with food. I suppose alcohol is a food. For your information, the AeroPress chamber and plunger are made of copolyester, the hard black parts are made of polypropylene, and the soft seal is a made of a thermoplastic elastomer. All these types of materials are widely used in the kitchen.

 

Best regards,

A. Tennant

Aerobie, Inc."

 

Any help is very much appreciated and thank you!

[mississippichem]

Off hand I'm sure the polypropylene is compatible with alcohol (ethanol I assume?). The thermoplastic elastomer, I'm not too familiar with but a quick google search reveals that they are mostly polystyrene/polyene mixes so i would think that would be okay as well.

 

The copolyester I know is at least theoretically susceptible to alkoxolysis by a nucleophile such as an alcohol. If its a coffee machine though, I'm sure it can withstand reasonable temperatures since the coplyester doesn't get hydrolyzed every time you make coffee. It really depends on how pure you need the alcohol to stay, and what kind of temperatures you are working with. But short answer, I think it should work.

[masterofceremonies]

Many thanks for your reply! Yes it's ethanol that I'm using, and everything is kept at room temperature. The reason I'm asking this query is because most recipes recommend using glass instead of plastic containers, as they can leach into the alcohol. So I just want to make sure that I won't wind up with contaminated alcohol.

[mississippichem]

Many thanks for your reply! Yes it's ethanol that I'm using, and everything is kept at room temperature. The reason I'm asking this query is because most recipes recommend using glass instead of plastic containers, as they can leach into the alcohol. So I just want to make sure that I won't wind up with contaminated alcohol.

 

Yes, glass is always better.

[johnheritage]

The mention of recipes potentially puts this into a category that is much more important than general chemical storage, which is primarily concerned with whether or not the container will perish; as it implies you may be consuming the contents.

 

If so, I would highly recommend using glass. Especially so if you will be storing high percentage alcohol or ethanol in them.

 

You are correct to be concerned about leaching. This is of virtually no importance to most people who do chemistry at home. It is of importance when discussing absolute analytical chemistry, physics and biology. That whilst materials may not fall apart, components within them can end up as trace contaminants in the contents.

 

In the case of plastics, there is already scientific evidence that they are not as benign as people thought not very long ago at all. As an example, hormone mimicking compounds have been found in bottled water when the container is plastic, but not glass filled from the same water source; they are coming out of the plastic and the consumer is ingesting them.

 

I do not yet know of anything known to be a life threatening problem leaching from them, but then, the research is still being done. Rather, I would suggest it is bad practice to be doing it with a pure, volatile organic solvent like ethanol and something you should avoid.

 

Similarly, materials involved in the production of foams and other polymers, or produced as side products, can climb the food chain. Small amounts may be released by the foam packing in furniture. These then concentrate in breast tissue, meaning girls who have been exposed to such unseen, prolonged 'leaching' of the off gassing can end up feeding their baby an enriched form of it.

 

Despite not being particularly old, I am already finding myself more and more concerned about precisely what artificial flavours do in the containers when combined into a cocktail, what the long term implications are of the heavy, daily exposure we now subject ourselves to (which isn't the same as an acute, 'responsible' exposure to one specific element) and what happens once the shake meets the billions of metabolic opportunities within a human body. That is a system that simply hasn't been exposed to such manipulation ever before. I shall leave you with another example, that numerous fruit concentrates were removed from the shelves, not very long ago, after samples from those that had been on the shelf for a while were taken and, despite this being sure fire formulation, it was found the preservative was reacting with the other components to release benzene; the solvent so carcinogenic they won't let anyone near it now. YUM!

Edited April 23, 2011 by johnheritage