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The container

Material by analyte, in practice

Updated

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Three materials cover most of this work, and each is the right answer for a reason the other two fail at.

Glass

Inert to organics, impermeable, and the default where volatiles or organic analysis are involved. The trade is that it contributes to some inorganic determinations, it breaks, and it is heavy for field work. Amber glass where the analyte is light sensitive.

Polyethylene

The usual answer for inorganics and general water chemistry: it does not contribute the elements glass does, it is cheap, and it survives being dropped in a field. It is permeable to organics, which is exactly why it is not used for them.

Fluoropolymer

PTFE and its relatives are the most inert and the most expensive, used where neither glass nor polyethylene is clean enough. Table II names it as FP, and in practice it appears most often as a liner rather than a whole bottle.

Sterilizable plastic, where the test is microbiological

The PA code is any plastic made of a sterilizable material, polypropylene or another autoclavable plastic. The bacterial tests in Table II specify PA or glass, because the container has to be sterile and stay that way until the sample goes in.

Several of them, from one sampling visit

A site tested for bacteria, metals and organics needs three different containers filled at the same tap. That is normal and it is the single most useful thing to understand before placing a first order.

When the method is silent

For unregulated work, reason from the same three mechanisms: is the analyte organic, does it adsorb, is it volatile. The regulation is useful here as a guide to what experienced people concluded, even where it does not bind you.

References

40 CFR 136.3, Table II — Required Containers, Preservation Techniques, and Holding Times, which prescribes the container material, the preservation and the maximum holding time per parameter. Footnote 1 defines the codes: “P” is polyethylene, “FP” is fluoropolymer (PTFE), “G” is glass, “PA” is any plastic made of a sterilizable material. law.cornell.edu
Written from federal regulation, not from a bench. Where a method specifies a container, a preservative or a holding time, the method governs and nothing here overrides it. Read the method you are running rather than a summary of what methods generally say.