I am trying to make 25ml aliquots of sterile spring water for some field work. I do not have access to a sterile hood, so I have been autoclaving spring water in 50ml PP/PPCO centrifuge tubes with aluminum foil tops and then sterilizing the caps separately in bleach before rinsing with alcohol and sterile water and capping. My intentions were to reduce exposure time to laboratory air to reduce chances of contamination through the transfer of water from glass bottle to the tubes.
After a few runs, only noticeable effects is sometimes salts precipitate out of the spring water and form a ring around the 50ml tube. I know literature indicates autoclaving plastics at 134C can release EA chemicals, but I have had trouble finding resources on 1) if this is safe to do and 2) if this actually reduces contamination risks.
I have been autoclaving for 30min at 120C on liquid cycle.
Any thoughts or comments are appreciated!
Hello
I used the bottles and tubes from Nalgene in the autoclave. I don't have a problem for the sterilization. Only problem with the many sterilization, the plastic is breaking easily.
some plastics are autoclavable and should not release significant chemicals, and you could even leave the cap on during autoclave, just loose the cap to let air in/out, the salt you saw may be due to some evaporation during autoclave: https://lab.plygenind.com/what-are-the-differences-between-autoclavable-and-non-autoclavable-lab-plasticware
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