What type of container is best for transferring -80C ethanol? Looking for a larger (5L) pitcher or something to transfer cryo ethanol to plant material. Do I need a dewar? Most plastics seem like they’d be too brittle? Glass?
One of those 5 gallon igloo water containers would work nicely. It may be brittle at those temperatures but the foam insulation inside the plastic keeps it very rigid and so theres not much flexing occurring even when the container is full.
Mine has never cracked from having dry ice directly on the plastic, my advice is to not drop something heavy in the container whole it’s that cold because that will crack it.
How far does the ethanol need to travel? I am personally a fan of stainless. We use kegs, currently, and keep them in the freezer the whole time. We use transfer lines and a bit of nitrogen to push the ethanol where we need it. If you need to move it across the room or across the building, that may not be the most reasonable option, but I do think that stainless is the way to go. Even if you have to carry it across the building, it shouldn’t lose much thermal mass and will never crack at cryo temps.
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I use 5gal HDPE stackable jerricans and have never had a problem with cracking or breaking. They have a ton of miles on them.