Last night, I was doing a reaction involving refluxing the reactants at about 120C, this was achieved by adding NaCl to a pan fun of water boiling on a gas stove, as it was the handyest thing around.
I was using a punchball balloon, as a condensor, and a 100ml kjeldahl flask, as the reaction generates quite a substantial amount of HI gas, and of course, rubber balloons don't particularly like either very hot acidic gas, concentrated HI being just such a gas, about hours into the reflux (about 48 hours in total is needed), the balloon got a pinhole rupture in the side, and started spewing forth a gout of brownish yellow HI gas.
That unfortunately, was my only balloon, I am thinking of using a combination of clear plastic bag, and duct tape, as a condensor, as it only needs to hold a small amount of HI (generated with 1200mg of red P, and 3.4g of I2.
Anyone reckon a plastic bag like this is useful as an emergency condensor? I think it will survive, hopefully, anyone got any better suggestions though?