sterilizing ba

[slimer]

I purchased some technical grade ba from lemelange and was going to sterilize it in the oven at 250, then filter it through a Whatman, into a sterile vial. But while cooking my ba it started to smoke so I dumped it. Is it ok to add it to bb and oil run it through a whatman and then heat it. To steralize it?

[spidey]

There is no need to sterilize BA. Bacteria can not live in BA to begin with. That is it's function in our gear/oil solutions, as a bactereostatic.

BA is an organic alcohol and is quite flamable. You are lucky you didn't have a fire. Even so, you didn't have to throw it away. It was unchanged and perfectly usable (after it cooled).

If you filter the finished gear solution through a 0.2 micron whatman, there is no need to heat it. That is small enough to actually filter out 100% of bacteria and even spores. Heating the gear is unneeded at best and destructive to your gear at worst. I would suggest that you put your empty vial in the oven at 350 for 30 minutes to insure it is sterile to begin with. After it cools, filter your gear into it through a 0.2 micron sterile whatman and you are good to go.

[slimer]

Thanks Spidey