Aluminium chloride (CAS 7446-70-0): storage and disposal

Water is the enemy of the anhydrous bottle. Keep it well away from ammonia solution, formalin, hydrochloric acid, hydrogen peroxide, sodium hydroxide, sodium hypochlorite and any other water based stock, so that a leak from a neighbour cannot reach it. Put it low down on a resistant tray in a ventilated corrosive store, with a dry shelf and nothing wet above it. Because it may be corrosive to metals, use plastic-lined caps and avoid metal shelving. The hexahydrate and dental solutions are less reactive but still acidic, so they belong in the same store, labelled clearly by form so nobody mistakes one for the other.

The anhydrous powder shows its history at once. A bottle that has taken in damp air may fume faintly at the neck, smell sharply of hydrogen chloride, cake into hard lumps or turn from white to yellowish. A specific concern is pressure, since the anhydrous form may pressurise when opened, so a swollen bottle or a bulging lid should be left alone, and the cap should not be loosened to check. The hexahydrate more simply goes damp and sticky, and haemostatic solutions may show crust round the cap. Corroded metal fittings and etched shelf surfaces nearby are further clues that fumes have been escaping.

We arrange this by specialist collection. We do not publish a drain or general waste route for any chemical. It is normally packed in a corrosive other laboratory pack with compatible chemicals.

Do not add water to any of it, wash a bottle out or try to deactivate a caked lump, because the anhydrous form reacts violently and releases hydrogen chloride. That is the first thing to understand about a collection. Say whether the stock is anhydrous, hexahydrate or a dental solution, and whether the bottle is swollen, fuming or caked. In a laboratory pack the usual code is 16 05 06*, discarded inorganic stock outside one usually uses 16 05 07*, and a dental surgery in a human healthcare setting usually uses 18 01 06*, though the producer classifies the waste. A specialist packs it dry and away from water based stock.

Usually held as: anhydrous, hexahydrate, haemostatic solutions.

Tell us the container size and how many you hold. An estimate is enough to start with, and some items cannot be priced until someone has looked at them.