[HN Gopher] How to Clean Chemistry Glassware ___________________________________________________________________ How to Clean Chemistry Glassware Author : adrian_mrd Score : 30 points Date : 2023-12-14 06:58 UTC (16 hours ago) (HTM) web link (www.chem.rochester.edu) (TXT) w3m dump (www.chem.rochester.edu) | getwiththeprog wrote: | Finally got the dishes done properly today, thanks Rochester! | showerst wrote: | It's interesting to me how concentrated HF is just universally | acknowledged as one of the 'big bads' of chemistry labs. | | I've run into "Yes HF works here but SERIOUSLY DON'T" in so many | different contexts and processes. Sounds like a lovely thing to | keep a nice distance from! | cgearhart wrote: | It makes the list of Things I Won't Touch | https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/things-i-won-t-tou... | purpleflame1257 wrote: | Acidic peroxide solution is also known commonly as piranha | solution. You can clean silicon wafer by dropping them in. Any | organic residue is toast, however. | foobarian wrote: | Sounds enticing for cleaning burned baking dishes! I tried with | concentrated NaOH and that didn't work so I need more extreme | solutions. | cowthulhu wrote: | That seems like a terrible idea on many levels. Will | definitely make for some fun anecdotes though (assuming | nothing goes wrong). Also - I don't know if I'd want to eat | anything cooked on a baking dish exposed to so many toxic | chemicals. | | I assume you're not joking, but this was a major whoosh if | you were! | jeffbee wrote: | Depending on what the material is, you can potentially clean | it by burning it harder. Set your over to 'clean' and find | out. | rubicks wrote: | Ex-undergrad-assistant in a organic synthesis lab, here. I am | extremely familiar with glass cleaning procedures, having done it | nearly daily for one long semester. | | Base bath is how you clean glassware. | | The base bath was a _saturated_ solution of KOH (potassium | hydroxide) in a 10-gallon PTFE (molded "teflon"). You knew it was | saturated by the KOH precipitate at the bottom. | | You take your "dirties", making absolutely sure they had no | residual acid on them, and ever so slowly, ease them into the | bath. 24 or 36 hours later, remove them and repeat with the next | batch. | | After a few dozen cycles, you have to change out the base for | fresh stuff. For that, you needed a face shield, shoulder gloves, | and extremely steady hands. | | Tedious, dangerous work. | kragen wrote: | why can't you siphon the base bath instead of having extremely | steady hands | | i'm also sort of surprised this treatment doesn't corrode the | glass. i guess borosilicate holds up to things that would ruin | soda-lime glass | jmwilson wrote: | Using Alconox (mentioned on the page, and easily found on Amazon) | is one my tricks when I absolutely need sparkling clean dishes or | containers. Not the best choice for the environment, and too | sudsy to use in a dishwasher, but amazingly effective. | jeffrallen wrote: | Nile Red got into a situation where some of his glassware was | damaged by a reaction but mixed into his still good glassware. He | decided to break it all to be sure! | | That's another cleaning strategy. | gizmo686 wrote: | https://youtu.be/tGqVMbAQhBs?si=FAve6HjtEd9rjbZv | | Notably, his concern was not that the glass was dirty, but that | it was literally breaking. As in, spontaneously spill a beaker | full of acid on the table breaking. | | The experiment he blames this on was using the beakers to | contain hot plasma. The beakers came out looking fine, but | probably suffered substantial thermal stress. | jeffbee wrote: | Frustratingly familiar from my college days is the vagueness of | these instructions. "Wear appropriate gloves." Such as? It is | easier to write "wear butyl gloves." Even the MSDS for 6M HCl | doesn't say "wear butyl gloves" it says "Select glove material | impermeable and resistant to the substance." Like, duh. Is there | a PPE lobbyist who prevents people from writing down concrete | recommendations? | somat wrote: | A good point, a very good point. Too many procedures or guides | are ruined by being vague on some minor yet critical point. | Probably obvious the the writer but not to the reader. | | However I will note this guide specifically points out to use | butyl gloves twice. | gorlilla wrote: | Because recommendations will vary by not only currently | accepted practices, but also geographical variances in product | availability. It's better to look at what you have on hand and | cross-reference with up-to-date information. | | Much like most people won't simply know how dangerous it is to | mix Nitrile gloves and Nitric Acid. When things can melt your | skin, it's always good form to verify safety info at the time | rather than just taking somebody's word for it, no? | | My 2 cents that is probably obvious anyhow | jeffbee wrote: | Nitrile gloves are quite useless against many common | substances, including acetone, esters, acetic acid, and | everything else with "acet" in the name. Aside from a few | cases where nitrile works and others don't (some | hydrocarbons, among others), there's usually something more | protective. | eternityforest wrote: | For non chemists just working with standard commercial | stuff(Epoxy, UV resin, grocery store cleaning chemicals, | and that's about it), various sites and ads give the | impression nitrile is "The good default thing you should | use".... | | Good to know that's not always the case? | onecommentman wrote: | Why isn't lab glassware, with few exemptions, a single use item? | How can the human safety risks in cleaning, and the analysis | risks from residual contamination be valued less than the cost of | fresh equipment made of...glass. Really nice glass, but simply | mass-produced objects made of silicon and oxygen. Just make some | more. | | The 1970s _Muppet Show_ US television program had a recurring | segment on "Muppet Labs" with a hapless lab assistant named | Beaker given silly and dangerous things to do by his boss. These | cleaning processes sound like a Beaker bit. But the Muppet Show | was a comedy... | gizmo686 wrote: | If you are working in a lab that needs that level of cleaning, | then odds are that what you do with the glass when you use it | is also dangerous. There is a reason that the stereotypical | chemist wears gloves, goggles, and a labcoat. | | Also, lab glass is more expensive than it looks. If you care | about this level of cleanliness, then you likely also care | about the precision of your glassware. And lab glassware comes | in much more exotic and hard to make forms than beakers. You | also might not be able to throw it away in the normal trash | because it is contaminated with something hazardous. | jmwilson wrote: | A lot of it is not mass-produced | (https://www.latimes.com/local/education/la-me-caltech- | glassb...). Even if you used brand-new pieces, for analytical | work, you'd still need to clean them according to these | procedures to remove residues from manufacturing, storage, and | shipping. | montecarl wrote: | Because laboratory glassware is very expensive and that would | be massively wasteful? Also, most labs that I have been in make | regular use of custom made glassware. Most chemistry | departments employ a glassblower! Also, for very sensitive | experiments, you would most certainly want to clean even brand | new unused glassware. | | Glass is amazing for chemistry not only because it is | chemically inert, transparent, has a high melting temperature, | and is reasonably strong but also because it is easy to clean! | mmaunder wrote: | In case anyone else wanted to cut to the chase - as in, what is | the most badass, dangerous, corrosive and potentially deadly | cleaning method: | | _Hydrofluoric: Concentrated solutions of HF will remove just | about everything from glass and will even etch the surface of the | glass itself. It should not be used on calibrated volumetrics. HF | causes severe, painful burns that do not heal well, and prolonged | or intense exposure can lead to a very slow, painful death. It is | not to be used by any students at Truman under any | circumstances._ ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2023-12-14 23:00 UTC)