BASIC LABORATORY RULES

1. Wear complete PPE (lab gown, long pants, closed shoes, gloves) when performing
experiments inside the laboratory. Wear safety goggles and face mask if necessary.
2. Strictly NO EATING or DRINKING inside the laboratory.
3. Do NOT touch any chemical with your bare hands.
4. Do NOT taste any chemicals.
5. Do NOT smell any chemicals directly. Use your fingers to waft odor to your nose.
6. Do NOT pipet solutions by mouth.
7. Reagent bottles must be re-stoppered immediately after use. Ready a waste beaker for pouring
liquids out of a reagent bottle. Do NOT introduce anything into reagent bottles, even
droppers or pipets. Do not place the stopper of a reagent bottle onto an unprotected bench top.
Solutions or solids already taken out of the container must never be returned to the reagent
bottle.
8. Use a fume hood when handling toxic or fuming chemicals.
9. When heating a test tube, point the mouth away from yourself and other students.
10. Never hold a container above eye level when pouring a liquid.
11. All broken glassware should be reported to your lab instructor and lab technician.
12. Report all spillage, accidents, or injuries, however minor, to your lab instructor.
13. Do not attempt unauthorized experiments.
14. Observe proper housekeeping and waste disposal after performing an experiment.
PROPER LABORATORY TECHNIQUES
A. Cleaning of Laboratory Glassware
• Cleaning of glassware should be done at the end of the period. Wash glassware with
detergent solution and then rinse; initially with copious amounts of tap water and finally
with several portions of distilled water.
• It is not necessary to dry the interior surface of glassware (especially with tissue) before
use. It can cause contamination.
• Never use a test tube brush when cleaning volumetric glassware.
• Cleaning of pipets and burets:
o Draw diluted detergent solution to a level of 2-3 cm above the calibration mark
using an aspirator.
o Drain solution and then rinse the pipet with several portions of tap water.
o Aspirate distilled water to approximately 1/3 of its capacity and rotate so that the
entire interior is wetted. Repeat this process twice.
B. Quantitative Transfer of Liquids
• Insert a funnel into the neck of the volumetric flask.
• Use a stirring rod to direct the flow of liquid from the beaker to the funnel.
• Rinse both the rod and the beaker with distilled water and transfer the washings to the
volumetric flask.
• Repeat the rinsing process at least twice.
C. Aliquot Measurement
• Rinse pipet with solution to be used before measuring out an aliquot.
• Forefinger must be faintly moist to facilitate easy control. Too much moisture makes
control difficult.
• Rinse pipet thoroughly after use.
• Residual liquid is never blown out of a volumetric pipet.
D. Dilution of Solutions
• Solute should be dissolved completely before diluting to mark.
 • Bring the liquid level almost to the mark and allow time for drainage.
• Use a dropper/wash bottle to make final additions of solvent as necessary.
• Firmly stopper the flask and invert it repeatedly to ensure thorough mixing.
• When diluting acids, always add concentrated acid to water and never water to acid.
E. Buret Filling
• Ensure that the stopcock is closed.
• Using a small beaker, add 5-10 mL of the titrant and rotate the buret to wet the interior
completely. Allow the liquid to drain through the tip. Repeat at least twice.
• Fill the buret well above the zero mark.
• Free the tip of any air bubbles by rapidly rotating the stopcock and permitting small
quantities of the titrant to pass.
• Lower the level of the liquid just to or somewhat below the zero mark.
• Allow approximately one minute for drainage.
• Do not store base solutions in a buret for a long time. It can cause glass stopcocks to
freeze upon long contact.
F. Titration
• Always record the initial buret reading before starting titrations. Use a buret card when
reading volumes. Do not forget to add indicator to the Erlenmeyer flask before starting
titrations.
• The dominant hand should be used to swirl the Erlenmeyer flask while the other hand
controls the stopcock.
• Place a white piece of paper at the iron stand base to properly observe color changes in
the Erlenmeyer flask.
• Ensure that the buret tip is well within the Erlenmeyer flask.
• Introduce the titrant in increments of about 1 mL and swirl constantly to ensure mixing.
• Decrease the size of the increments as the titration progresses. Addition should be
dropwise when the endpoint is near.
• Allow for drainage for at least 30 seconds before recording the final volume.
G. Reading of Volumes
• Always read the lower meniscus, which is the curved surface of a liquid at its interface
with its atmosphere.
• Read at eye level to avoid the apparent displacement of a liquid level as an observer
changes position or parallax error.
H. Weighing of Objects
• Always allow an object that has been heated to cool to room temperature before weighing
since it causes the apparent weight of the object to be lower.
• Use crucible tongs or forceps to prevent moisture uptake by dried objects from touching
by hand during weighing.
• Keep the laboratory balance clean and neat. Clean up any spillages immediately.
• Use an analytical balance for weighing solids to the nearest 0.1 mg or 0.0001 g.
particularly in weighing primary standards. Use the technique of weighing by difference.
• The top-loading balance is used for weighing hygroscopic solids such as NaOH and
KMnO4.
I. Heating and Drying Objects
• Never place a heated object directly on the tabletop. Use a wire gauze instead.
• Keep tongs and forceps scrupulously clean. Do not allow the tips to touch the tabletop.
• Always turn off the burner or hot plate when not in use.
• Calibrated glassware (buret, pipette, graduated cylinder) should not be heated.
• Dried materials are stored in desiccators while they cool to minimize moisture uptake.