Diethyl pyrocarbonate (CAS 1609-47-8): storage and disposal

Moisture is the thing to keep away from DEPC. It reacts with water to give ethanol and carbon dioxide, so a damp cupboard or a bottle opened in a humid room slowly changes its contents. Keep it tightly closed in its original container inside a labelled secondary tray, at the temperature specified by the supplier. Record the opening date on the bottle. Do not keep it beside open aqueous reagents. A university RNA bench often keeps small bottles near buffers and water supplies for convenience, which is the wrong place for a bottle that cannot tolerate damp. Hold the minimum quantity, because it is used in small amounts and old stock accumulates.

Look at the bottle before the liquid. A bulging cap may indicate pressure from carbon dioxide generated by moisture reacting with DEPC. Do not open or disturb a suspected pressurised bottle. Record the condition and refer it to the specialist collector for assessment. The liquid should be clear and mobile. Cloudiness, droplets of a second layer or a changed smell show water has got in and the contents have broken down, even though the label is unchanged. Crust round the cap, a stained or softened label and a cracked bottle are further signs. A DEPC bottle with no date has no reliable history.

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 We do not publish a drain or general waste route for any chemical.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 general laboratory pack with compatible chemicals.

The relevant code in a research lab is usually 16 05 06*. Where it is a discarded chemical outside a lab pack, the entry is usually 16 05 08*. Record the bottle as labelled, its approximate volume and the opening date. A bottle that bulges or hisses should be treated as potentially pressurised. Do not open, move or place it into a tray yourself. Keep people away and arrange specialist assessment before collection. Sealed bottles go upright in a lab pack with other compatible reagents. It must never go to a sink, drain or the general waste, and nobody should try to break it down by adding water.

Usually held as: neat.

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.