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Hi!
If have small problem with my TEA. I bought a bottle of TEA
in January, this was and still is a thick liquid. Then I bought
a bottle last week, same seller, same bottle, same manufacturer, same
Text on bottle. But: The new TEA goes from liquid to solid at about 20 degrees Celsius. To return this I must heat it at about 25-30 degrees celsius. The
older TEA I bought in January doesn't get solid at same temperatur conditions.
So what's here the problem? I haven't tested the new TEA for preswelling. But the older one worked perfect. Any Ideas why the older one doesn't get solid but the newer one does?
Thanks

I browsed around and found that many references gave the melting point for TEA as around 18-21C - (for example http://physchem.ox.ac.uk/MSDS/TR/triethanolamine.html ) - maybe you got a purer batch than usual? It tend to absorb water from the air which might tend to reduce the melting point - maybe your old batch had more water in it. Strange - I put my little 100 ml TEA bottle in the fridge while writing this and just checked it - it must have got down to around 5-10C and it's still very liquid. Maybe it doesn't take much water to drastically reduce the melting point.

Yes I found this information about the melting point, too. Maybe your explanation
is right. I will try to preswell a film and see if it acts like the old bottle.

I've used TEA at 60 F (15 C?) and it was liquid, It also preswelled fine. Either the local spacetime around the storage area where you put the TEA has strange properties, or it isn't TEA. Either the molecular structure must be pretty dense or ordered like a crystal. Organic substances like TEA have a pretty low melting point.

I had a somewhat similar experience the last time I ordered TEA. It arrived frozen and I had to sit the bottle in some warm water and allow it to melt. The difference is that it has never re-frozen since then. Tom's theory sounds likely. Where did you order the TEA from?



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