Can I vacuum seal half used inkjet cartridges?

[Number21]

I have access to a bunch of 1/4 - 1/2 full HP inkjet cartridges from an office that would otherwise throw them out. (they're for portable printers and they keep the portables full and replace ink early) I can get more than I can use...but I can't really store them, because they will dry out.

So, I was wondering, could I vacuum seal a cartridge inside a glass jar? (I alread have an apparatus for sealing jars) Would that cause ink to go anywhere it shouldn't, and would that allow me to save them indefinately without drying out?

 

[canonfodder]

Number21,

I have no previous experience, but think about this. I believe you will harm the ink if you place the cartriges in a vacuum. The ink is mostly water and the water will easily evaporate under the reduced pressure of a vacuum.

What you probably need to do is prevent evaporation as much as possible. If it were easy to seal all openings on the ink cartridges, you would expect them to be preserved. I don't believe you are likely to be successful in sealing all the openings without endangering some aspect of the cartridges. You might be more successful in preventing evaporation by enclosing the cartridges in an airtight space with as little surrounding air space as possible.

My first thought on how to accomplish this would be to use a sealable plastic bag such as the ZipLock type. With the cartridge(s) inside and the zipper almost closed, exclude all the excess air that you can by collapsing all the free space in the bag and then complete the zipping. Note that this is just excluding air space, not pulling a vacuum.

My second thought would be to include within the sealable plastic bag a folded up and damp paper towel. The towel's job would be to raise the internal relative humidity to further inhibit evaporation of the ink's water component. Perhaps adding a small amount of alcohol also on the paper towel could help prevent unwanted growth of mold spores. I remember Grandad35 mentioning the use of alcohol in helping storage situations.

Comments Invited.

 

[pharmacist]

Canonfodder and Number21,

You can use alcohol to prevent mold spores, but it tends to evaporate very fast leaving you with a dry paper towel after a while. Much better: use a 20 % propylene glycol/80 % distilled water solution: this keeps much longer and has the same effect. Propylene glycol acts as a humectant preventing rapid evaporation of water and has a strong preservative effect.