I need to print something that will be used when handling DMSO, and I need it to not be soluble in or react with the DMSO at all. Are there any filaments that would be suited to this task? I don’t think that PLA or ABS would work well, as they’re both somewhat soluble in DMSO. Perhaps nylon would work, but I’m not 100% sure. Anyone know anything better? Thanks.
DMSO is a tricky solvent/ester – and one you need to be SO careful with, health-wise.
As an aside… I do not recommend making liquid-tight vessels using 3D printing. It’s very hard to get a tight seal because of the nature of FDM.
One of the safest plastics to use with DMSO is HDPE ( milk bottle plastic ) which is an easy thermoplastic to work with – it is great for injection molding, and vacuum forming. HDPE is only very recently becoming available as a filament.
Nylon and Polycarbonate are the only available filaments I can think of that would be “safe” to make assemblies that will be exposed to DMSO.
1 Like
Thanks @martinbogo! The part will not be directly contacting DMSO, at least not intentionally. It’s going to be a pocket that we will place glass vials of DMSO which will then get caps crimped onto them, but the part has to be resistant for the likely event that they will eventually come into contact with solvent.
HDPE is a great suggestion – in fact I think it’s the material that the part that currently fulfills this purpose is made of. We wanted to try printing it to make some modifications and have some extras on hand. Perhaps I could try my hand at making it on the mill/lathe instead, though… It’s a pretty simple part. Regardless, I’ll look into Nylon and Polycarbonate filaments as well.
Thanks!
1 Like