Australia's Science Forum

does anyone use them?
Know what they are?
Useful?
I have been asked by one of my former HT's..

Thanks!

The only thing I know by that name is broken pieces of evaporating dishes or crucibles. You use a small amount of these pieces in the bottom of flasks or beakers to provide a basis for bubbles to form and so prevent superheating.

Yes Sunray, thats the only thing I know them by. Now days they use glass beads, which I hate, because they are so small, and once on the floor, it is so hard to find them. Porous Pots are all different shapes & sizes as we brake them up.

We use porous pots for biology. Inverted with a big stopper and tube into eosin. It gets sucked up and pot turns red. They are about 250ml and have always been here. I would look at southern biol maybe?????
And the broken bits we use in chem are boiling chips.

I asked the HT what they were used for and she said Potential diff.
Is that what this is for, she doesn't want to buy them unless they will be useful...and used....

Depends what will you uset it for. we use them for few experiments:
for cracking hydrocarbons prac? use as Sunray suggested broken pieces of evaporating dish (need realy good test tube)
galvanic cell, salt bridge, ( i use filter paper instead)
difussion prac needs real deal though.
You can buy them from Heinz

We have several of these in our Chemical store room and I have brought them out about 3 times in the last 14 years.

They were used in relation to Galvanic cells in Year 12 Chemistry and showed the same thing as salt bridges in a U tube or filter paper, and were only used for that one lesson each time.

We have these in our store room but after 11 years I have still never been asked for them for anything.

KIMMY

We have been using porous pot for 2 things

1. broken pieces for boiling liquids
2. galvanic cells

Have sourced small porous pots (75 x 35 mm) from Science Supply - I am sure there are other companies that supply the small pots. We are using the small pots now as they use a lot less chemical than the 150 x 50 mm pots

I just had an "ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh" moment.. so THAT is a porous pot!
I used to use them when working inindustry, but they had a different name where I worked........

Narelle,

We have a whole EEI for Yr11 Chem based on using these in a galvanic cell.

Kids work out the potential differences between different solutions (Cu2+, Ni, K+ etc) and then they have to work on the dilutions to achieve a specific reading.

I use the Student Cell kits, and I own 20 sets. We use them every year, and they are SO much easier to use than any other method.

Is this likely to be what your teacher is after?