[owk9688]

Can you wash Rubber Septa with water and acetone without compromising their ability to maintain a seal and not contaminate a reaction, or do you guys usually just toss them in the trash? The reason Im asking is because I was doing a lot of reactions with  acyl chlorides recently and all of my septa are quite stained, and Im not sure if they are still fine to re-use in subsequent reactions are if they should be cleaned somehow/tossed out.

[Guitarmaniac86]

I wash mine with acetone but they don't last long, also I dry them with compressed air. If mine are really stained I just throw them out.

[wildfyr]

Rubber septum+HCl=damaged septa (they look black). Thats whats happening to the septa. The HCl is chlorinating the double bonds. I toss em after they look like that, as do most people I think.

If youre really going through them, maybe use glass stoppers?

[phth]

That's because your prolly using a solvent that easily permeates them.  Look at  glove chart to see which ones are the culprits.  I'm guessing dcm, thf.... Just toss them.  What's more expensive, wasting chemicals, your time, getting a bad result or a cheap piece of rubber?

[zarhym]

Do you know rubber has Carbon-Carbon double bonds in it?

[wildfyr]

Do you know rubber has Carbon-Carbon double bonds in it?

I'm assuming they the septa are polybutadiene, so yes.