Lab Safety

1Lab Safety¶

Acidic compound: if water doesn’t remove the material, use butanol and then soap+water.
*Seek medical attention as the last resort.

*Chemicals in eyes:
wash the eyes with lots of water.
Don’t use ethanol, antiseptics, ointments, or any material except 1% aqueous sodium phosphate
solution for acid injuries.
● location of the eyewash fountain: front cove at front entrance of the lab.
Fire.
● shouldn’t be used on burning water-insoluble liquids such as ether, carbon disulfide, and gasoline. Use
either sodium carbonate, bicarbonate or sand.
● Water sodium, lithium, and potassium fires are best extinguished with sodium nitrate or sodium
fluroine (because water react with these violently). Sand is a poor second choice. CO2 is not effective
● Fire extinguishers: one is right in front the door of Grace’s room and there is one by every pair of
fumehoods.
● Fire blankets: They are located right near the entrance and on either side of the front door.
● If on fire: stop, drop and roll. Don’t run.
First aid kit : front of lab by Mike’s office.
Spills: washed immediately with plenty of water

Equipment and supplies:
(what for and used in what labs)
● Water condenser: (for distillation, both simple and fractional)
● Separatory funnel: for solvent extraction.
● Round bottom flask: for distillations and boiling at reflux
● stillhead and adaptor: parts of the distillation apparatus.
● Erlenmeyer Flask: a normal flask. good for recrystallization
● Filter flask: a flask with a sidearm for suction filtration (thus it withstands vacuum).
● Beaker: for preparing/holding liquids or weighting solids.
● Buchner funnel: for suction filtration
● Graduated Cylinder
● Short-stem funnel (for hot filtration) and powder funnel (inside diameter >12mm)
● Drying tube: protect system from moisture. the tube is filled with drying agents.
● Universal clamp (can hold a flask)
● Micro Bunsen burner
● Hoffman clamp
● Clamp holder
Laboratory Operations

● Assembling and dismantling ground-joint glassware:
○ ground surfaces must be clean to start with (no tiny grit)
○ use lubricant (Lubriseal or Dw-Corning silicone)
○ use clamps at several points so the joints fit tightly together.
○ Freezing: two joints stick tightly together
■ occurs when joints are insufficiently lubricated, subjected to heat , or exposed to
alkaline/acidic solutions
■ is best avoided by dismantling the apparatus asap after use.
■ apply steam over the outer joint might help
● Cleaning and drying Glassware
○ always clean right after use... standing makes removal of residues difficult
○ to clean out organic tar
■ scrape off as much as possible and dispose it in a waste crock
■ rinse with distilled water
■ to clean silicone grease add some acetone and warm it up gently.
■ If the tar is acidic/basic, you may try rinsing it with dilute base/acid.
■ scouring powder and water to remove remainder of tar
■ End: soak in detergent: wipe the silicone with tissue wet with chloroform
○ If glasswares were to be used soon
■ rinse with fresh acetone (which is kept in polyethylene wash bottle)
■ dry it by sucking air through it. BLOWING
● Waste Disposal
○ rule of thumb: dispose waste as instructed
○ halogenated waste (waste with halides) v.s non-halogenated waste.
○ some may have to be decomposed before being discarded
○ aqueous solutions or water soluble liquids usually may be disposed of down the sink with a lot
of water