The reason why potassium hydroxide can't use ground glass plug!

In the chemical industry, there are many precautions for different products in the storage mode, because they have different characteristics and storage environment requirements, so you should be very careful when selecting storage containers. Potassium hydroxide is a highly alkaline chemical whose solution is usually in a glass bottle, but corks do not need to be made of glass. So, what's the reason why it can't be used with frosted glass plug? The analysis is as follows.

The composition of glass bottle and ground glass plug is the same. KOH is a strong alkali. The composition of glass is SiO2. The reaction of SiO2 and KOH will produce k2SiO3. But the response was slow. The inner part of the glass bottle is very smooth, and the reaction is very slow. The basic reaction will not be how it is. Moreover, due to the rough mouth of the frosted bottle, the contact area between the potassium hydroxide solution and the glass will be increased and the reaction will be accelerated. After k2SiO3 is generated, the bottle will stick to the mouth and cannot be opened. So, we need to replace it with a rubber stopper. In addition, even if it is a frosted mouth, the reaction is very slow, and it can only be pasted after 1 or 2 months. But no one always uses potassium hydroxide solution, so the probability of adhesion is relatively high, so we have to use rubber stoppers.

That's why potassium hydroxide can't be used with ground glass plugs, and why ground glass plugs need to be replaced by rubber. I hope you know something about it so that you can choose the right cork for it in the future. Strong bases are sensitive not only to small details of storage containers and stoppers, but also to many other things we need to know.