A Fisher-Porter tube or Fisher-Porter vessel is a glass
pressure vessel
A pressure vessel is a container designed to hold gases or liquids at a pressure substantially different from the ambient pressure.
Construction methods and materials may be chosen to suit the pressure application, and will depend on the size o ...
used in the chemical laboratory. The reaction vessel consists of a lipped heavy-wall
borosilicate glass
Borosilicate glass is a type of glass with silica and boron trioxide as the main glass-forming constituents. Borosilicate glasses are known for having very low coefficients of thermal expansion (≈3 × 10−6 K−1 at 20 °C), ma ...
tube and a lid made from stainless steel. The lid is sealed with an
o-ring
An O-ring, also known as a packing or a toric joint, is a mechanical gasket in the shape of a torus; it is a loop of elastomer with a round cross-section, designed to be seated in a groove and compressed during assembly between two or more par ...
and held in place with a coupling.
The advantage over steel
autoclave
An autoclave is a machine used to carry out industrial and scientific processes requiring elevated temperature and pressure in relation to ambient pressure and/or temperature. Autoclaves are used before surgical procedures to perform sterilizat ...
s is that the progress of a reaction can be followed by eye. The maximum pressure that can be achieved is much lower than that in a metal
bomb
A bomb is an explosive weapon that uses the Exothermic process, exothermic reaction of an explosive material to provide an extremely sudden and violent release of energy. Detonations inflict damage principally through ground- and atmosphere-t ...
. For example, typical pressure ratings are 7
bar
Bar or BAR may refer to:
Food and drink
* Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages
* Candy bar
* Chocolate bar
Science and technology
* Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment
* Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud
* Bar (u ...
for a large 335 mL Fisher-Porter vessel and 15 bar for a small 90 mL one, whereas the usual kind of bomb is safe to use with 200 bar. Illustrative applications involve reactions at elevated temperatures using volatile reagents.
Name
The name has become something of a
genericised trademark
A generic trademark, also known as a genericized trademark or proprietary eponym, is a trademark or brand name that, because of its popularity or significance, has become the generic term for, or synonymous with, a general class of Good (econom ...
. For decades these flasks used to be made by the Fisher & Porter Company until it became a part of
ABB
ABB Ltd. is a Swedish- Swiss multinational corporation headquartered in Zürich, Switzerland. The company was formed in 1988 when Sweden's Allmänna Svenska Elektriska Aktiebolaget (ASEA) and Switzerland's Brown, Boveri & Cie merged to create ...
. Nowadays they are sold by Andrews Glass under the ''Lab-Crest'' label.
Alternatives
Ace Glass offers thick-walled glass tubes with their proprietary Ace-Thred screw caps. Caps are available to fit gas plunger valves to admit gases under pressure. Similar arrangements are available from Q Labtech and sold through
Sigma-Aldrich
Sigma-Aldrich (formally MilliporeSigma) is an American chemical, life science, and biotechnology company that is owned by the German chemical conglomerate Merck Group.
Sigma-Aldrich was created in 1975 by the merger of Sigma Chemical Company a ...
.
External links
Manufacturer's webpage {Dead link, date=December 2019 , bot=InternetArchiveBot , fix-attempted=yes
References
Laboratory equipment
Pressure vessels
Q-Tube, a safer alternative pressure vessel