Skip to main content

Questions tagged [equipment]

Questions regarding the equipment used in labs (such as flasks, tubes etc.), their operation and maintenance.

Filter by
Sorted by
Tagged with
9 votes
2 answers
631 views

Use of pipette during experiments for determination of oxygen by Winkler's method

We were performing estimation of $\ce{O2}$ by Winkler's method and we were told by the instructor that while adding $\ce{MnSO4}$ and $\ce{NaOH}$ / $\ce{KI}$ the pipette tip should be well below the ...
Tyto alba's user avatar
  • 863
22 votes
1 answer
2k views

Does anyone know what this piece of glassware is?

I recently found this piece of lab glass with a jacket and spout. It says eubilicmeter but I cannot find any information about it online and I do not know what it is supposed to do. It is hollow in ...
Chad's user avatar
  • 221
1 vote
0 answers
480 views

Possible Method for Testing Ammonia (and Nitrite/Nitrate) Concentration in Water

I am designing an automated system testing device for my high school's aquaponics club. We need to test for a number of ion concentrations, including ammonia and nitrite/nitrate. In my research, the ...
e6r339b's user avatar
  • 11
4 votes
1 answer
659 views

Solvents for tartrates / tannins that won't attack glass

At the bottom of my wine decanter (which due to its shape is fantastically hard to clean mechanically) a layer of reddish brown precipitate forms. I believe this is probably potassium bitartrate ...
abligh's user avatar
  • 189
0 votes
3 answers
15k views

How to judge accuracy and precision of measurement devices?

I am unsure about the accuracy and/or precision of measuring instruments. For example, if we have a graduated cylinder, a pipette and a beaker, how and why can we assert them that they can be used ...
Amira's user avatar
  • 11
1 vote
1 answer
1k views

Piece of equipment similar to syringe for gas collection

I'm looking for the name of a piece of equipment similar to a syringe. The only difference is that this item is made entirely from glass. The purpose of this equipment is to collect gases. Here is a ...
Jeanma's user avatar
  • 95
7 votes
3 answers
39k views

What's the difference between pipettes calibrated "TD", "TC", "Blow-out" and related terms?

I've never blown-out the last drop of any glass pipette I've ever used during my undergraduate studies. Recently I re-read some notes I had lying around in order to prepare a class I had to give to a ...
Ignacio's user avatar
  • 966
3 votes
0 answers
195 views

What is this "bulbous"/"blood sugar" test tube used for?

I was at an antique and bric-a-brac store, and I found several pieces of glassware. They were pretty cheap, so I purchased some of the more interesting ones. Among them were a few somewhat strange "...
ChemBird's user avatar
  • 512
18 votes
1 answer
733 views

Unknown glassware

I recently found a piece of older glassware in our lab and nobody seems to know what it is. It appears to be some sort of condenser; however, it does not have both the in and out little notches on it. ...
skennedy's user avatar
  • 181
1 vote
0 answers
54 views

Automated chemistry test machines? What is currently done, and what is research leaning towards?

There are small and large chips and machines to effect admixtures,blends, fusions of different chemicals into a variety of test samples, and there are machines to measure many vials of all kinds of ...
bandybabboon's user avatar
7 votes
2 answers
145 views

Kipp's apparatus with powders

A Kipp's apparatus has three distinct bulbs. The topmost one contains a liquid and a tube to the bottommost one. The middle one contains a solid to react with the liquid. This is very understandable ...
sadljkfhalskdjfh's user avatar
2 votes
2 answers
141 views

Is there a way to counteract the problems with weighing hot objects?

I am currently performing an experiment in which it would be greatly beneficial to be able to accurately measure the mass of a hot object without waiting for it to cool. The current plan is simply to ...
Roman Sherrod's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
962 views

Condensation of Ethylene Glycol

I'm looking to reflux a 250 mL of ethylene glycol solution. Would an Allihn condenser be suitable; if so what length?
Jeremy Vandenberg's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
2k views

Is this Boiling point apparatus?

I have some chemistry equipment but I am not sure what it is for; I think it may be apparatus for measuring elevated boiling points. I have included a drawing of how I think it should go together. ...
Jayjay's user avatar
  • 21
15 votes
2 answers
2k views

Why does KCl come in amber coloured bottles?

I remember from school that photosensitive chemicals are kept in amber coloured bottles. Is KCl photosensitive? I read up the impurities list on the bottle and it says that it may have bromides too? ...
Polisetty's user avatar
  • 422
5 votes
2 answers
2k views

Preparing an inert atmosphere reaction vessel with only an input?

One time, the graduate student that I work with was showing me how to prepare an inert atmosphere in a double necked round bottom flask. After drying it in the oven, she used a torch to drive out all ...
ringo's user avatar
  • 24.1k
0 votes
1 answer
12k views

How to read the used volume from a burette?

I conducted an acid-base titration with vinegar and sodium hydroxide today, where sodium hydroxide was used as the titrant (solution in the burette). I collected the data for the initial and final ...
Genny Murphy's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
83 views

Wetting properties of FTO coated glass

I am trying to spin coat a layer of polymer+Quantum Dots on an FTO coated glass slide. My material is forming agglomerates at the edges of my slide. My polymer is PVK which has a conc of$\approx 4.5mg/...
Ghosal_C's user avatar
  • 501
1 vote
0 answers
58 views

How do I open volumetric flask with with 1M HCl? [duplicate]

I have two volumetric flasks with ground glass stopper, and I have 1M HCl inside each of them. I can't open either, stopper is "glued" to the flask somehow. Potentially by hydrochloric acid. Or maybe ...
Sleepy Hollow's user avatar
2 votes
2 answers
223 views

Can anyone identify this glassware?

Hoping for a little help identifying this lab glass , I don't know anything about lab glass , this was in a storage unit I'm purchased at auction,,, there is what I think is called a condense & 2 ...
Charles's user avatar
  • 31
3 votes
1 answer
467 views

Trifluoroacetic acid, Formic acid and dichloromethane

I am working in a small lab (in a small company) with very poor conditions, which I have to improve (for example: no sink , I have to wash the glassware in the bathroom). My organic chemistry is very ...
Sebastião's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
121 views

How to store bulk gas products and reagents?

Suppose I'm doing a batch process where an intermediate (non-hazardous) reagent is a gas, and I need to produce and temporarily store something on the order of a cubic meter of it to later feed back ...
feetwet's user avatar
  • 3,352
1 vote
2 answers
14k views

Boiling and Exploding Beaker?

A few days ago, I was creating a solution which involved boiling water. I had two 4L beakers on identical hot plates. After around 10 minutes, the first one boiled. Waiting another 30 minutes, the ...
Nathan Ringo's user avatar
9 votes
1 answer
2k views

Why are Erlenmeyer flasks shaped the way they are?

The title says it all. We could conceive a good number of other possibilities. Why did Erlenmeyer arrive at this design?
docscience's user avatar
  • 2,793
12 votes
1 answer
177 views

High temperature bath chemicals

I have an electric mantle that I want to bathe reaction vessels at temperatures up to $\mathrm{750^{\circ}C}$. Obviously that rules out oils. What substances are used as bath media at such ...
feetwet's user avatar
  • 3,352
4 votes
2 answers
3k views

Choosing a vacuum pump for fractional distillation

I have a fractional distillation setup. I would like to purify a small mixture ($\pu{\approx 100-150 mL}$) of high boiling point compounds (between $200$ and $\pu{300^\circ C}$). The one that ...
klaus's user avatar
  • 71
6 votes
3 answers
624 views

What are good lubricants for Bunsen burners?

We've been running into a lot of problems the last several years with our laboratory Bunsen burners becoming jammed and/or corroded. I've just come to find out that our lab tech has been lubricating ...
ChemProfMatt's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
2k views

Autoclaving certain plastics?

My professor is letting me use the autoclave in the future, but I am a novice. I asked him what materials were safe to autoclave for my notes, materials meaning glass or plastic-ware. He stated, "...
Ro Siv's user avatar
  • 229
1 vote
0 answers
156 views

How to test acid-base reactions under pressure?

I am trying to test chemical reactions, more specifically reactions between an acid and a base, at different levels of pressure. I would like to know if there is some kind of equipment I can get that ...
RothX's user avatar
  • 111
4 votes
1 answer
69 views

Refrigeration for Cryochemistry −35 °C

I need to cool a tube containing liquid to −35 °C for a cold chemical experiment that will last about a week. The glass vessel I need cooled is 500 mL in volume and will be giving off $\ce{H2S}$ gas. ...
Dale's user avatar
  • 2,682
1 vote
2 answers
175 views

What is this glassware?

I found this in a second hand store, and I think it has to do with freeze drying. Is there any validity to this assumption? What is this called? Also, the little tuberculina at the bottom are stuffed ...
iDomo's user avatar
  • 11
1 vote
1 answer
218 views

opperating a distillation column far from flooding

I know that flooding will ruin the performance of a distillation column. There are many correlations (Eckert, kister, billet, etc.) that will tell you when a column will flood based on your fluid ...
Murenrb's user avatar
  • 141
0 votes
0 answers
144 views

Bromine Homolysis Using Handheld UV Lamp

I'm trying to investigate the homolysis of bromine for an IB Chemistry (high school) Internal Assessment. To do so, I need a UV lamp capable of splitting diatomic bromine into bromine radicals. Would ...
DefinitelyNotAPlesiosaur's user avatar
10 votes
2 answers
8k views

What is the accuracy of medical syringes?

I am interested in both low and high volume syringes.
Euphorbium's user avatar
3 votes
0 answers
282 views

Why does my eudiometer have this excess volume at the top?

It looks like this: The measurements start at 2 mL and the volume remaining in the top seems to be greater than 1 mL. What is the purpose? I am trying to measure hydrogen gas.
Mickhael Jay's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
258 views

Types of argon gas regulator? [closed]

I have a high pressure bottle of argon gas (99.98 %) that I need to use in an experiment. The problem is that the regulator I have is a generic type that is seemingly optimized for high flow rates (...
Dirk Bruere's user avatar
  • 1,836
5 votes
1 answer
421 views

Why does latex tubing become white and brittle over time, especially where it's bent?

Here's a picture of some latex tubing we have in the lab, bought many years ago and stored in a drawer. What's responsible for the white corners near places where the tubing is bent? Is this ...
user1704042's user avatar
15 votes
2 answers
2k views

What is this Lab equipment?

I want to know the name of this equipment with a sealed graduated tube and the purpose it's being used. I went through all the results of Google, but I was unable to find this exact equipment. I ...
Nimeshka Srimal's user avatar
8 votes
1 answer
766 views

What is this piece of glassware called?

Here's an image: The left side is designed to be fitted into a beaker, and it captures gas evolved during a reaction. The right side can be filled with a liquid to then react with that gas. We use ...
realityChemist's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
862 views

The weight of a 2cc glass pharmaceutical flame sealed ampoule? [closed]

This is one of the flame sealed type whose neck is broken before use. There seems to be lots of info on dimensions but none with regard to weight.
Dirk Bruere's user avatar
  • 1,836
4 votes
2 answers
419 views

Name of round piece of glassware with thin neck?

Found in the lab, it looks like a round bottom flask with an extremely thin neck. Effectively a glass sphere about 60 mm in diameter with what looks like a capillary tube as the neck. Not sure whether ...
Dirk Bruere's user avatar
  • 1,836
0 votes
1 answer
312 views

Why laboratory glassware shatter in big pieces?

What are laboratory glassware made up of? This question came up in mind because once I accidentally dropped a test tube and it shattered into big pieces. I observed that it didn't broke into pieces on ...
Nilay Ghosh's user avatar
  • 26.8k
0 votes
1 answer
191 views

Best way to remove Aluminium from "silvered" glass?

Requirement is simple(!) - I have 30mm silvered glass balls that are originally Christmas tree decoration that I want to use in a very unconventional manner in a physics experiment. As far as I can ...
Dirk Bruere's user avatar
  • 1,836
4 votes
0 answers
193 views

How to minimize surface adsorption by choice of material?

I need to do buoyancy experiments in vapours consisting of organic molecules in air using a microbalance. This involves measuring the change in weight of a sealed glass sphere when exposed to the gas. ...
Dirk Bruere's user avatar
  • 1,836
3 votes
2 answers
1k views

What equipment to use to make liquid oxygen?

I'd like to do some experiments with liquid oxygen but as a first step I'll have to make some. Unfortunately I don't have any experience designing cryogenic experiments. I'm thinking I'll cool gaseous ...
Zik Saleeba's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
1k views

How to get meniscus down to the calibration mark with a volumetric pipette

I am having trouble taking aliquots using the 10 ml volumetric pipette. After rinsing, I draw the solution up past the calibration mark and stopper the pipette with my index finger. Then I slowly ...
liya77's user avatar
  • 637
2 votes
0 answers
159 views

Flow cup viscometer vs rotational viscometer: limitations and use cases for each

What are the limitations of an inexpensive flow cup viscometer (or any other manual test viscometer) when compared to an expensive digital rotational viscometer?
Anand's user avatar
  • 121
8 votes
1 answer
2k views

Vacuum distillation apparatus selection and configuration

I want to assemble a "hobbyist-level" vacuum distillation apparatus for extracting small volumes of "typical" solvents (e.g., water, alcohols, ketones, diols). I already have standard lab glassware ...
feetwet's user avatar
  • 3,352
1 vote
0 answers
347 views

Why molten lithium burns through the glass but sodium not?

It's well-known in laboratory practice that one shouldn't melt lithium in a glass equipment and there isn't such rule about other alkali metals. You may damage the glass with sodium but lithium will ...
GilAlexander's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
153 views

NO2 gas was detected in FTIR

We have a laser chamber full of $\ce{F2}$ gas (no air should be in the chamber) and several parts including steel, wires, ceramics, zinc.... This is for laser generation so the temperature is pretty ...
LaserAdvise's user avatar