Benefits of Glass Lab Apparatus
You can use lab instruments such as conical flasks, petri-dishes, round bottom flasks, pipettes, measuring cylinders, beakers, burettes, volumetric flasks, vials, test tubes, and more that are made out of plastic or glass. Production of plastic lab equipment proceeds centuries of people using glassware lab equipment. Soda-lime and borosilicate glass is used to make lab apparatus. Glass lab instruments have these benefits.
You should take precautions when using glassware in the lab to protect them from breaking so that they can last longer. Understand the thermal shock and mechanical stress of glass lab ware and take precautions not to go beyond that by sticking to safety measures to protect them from breaking. A great example is to use the right vessel for sulphuric acid reaction by ensuring that you stir and cool that acid before using it for any experiment. Heating volumetric instruments on heating plates increase their risks of breaking. Glass beakers and flasks rarely break when they are heated on hot plates. Do not use volumetric flasks and graduated cylinders for exothermic reactions. Glass instruments cannot withstand sudden temperature or pressure changes because that makes them break.
Visibility in glass lab apparatus is high because they have high clarity thus you are able to see, measure and recording volumes accurately and clearly. Cleaning lab glass instruments is easy so that they remain visible for you to measure and record liquids and solids accurately. You should remove the protein residues first from the apparatus using cold water. Mix a disinfectant solution at the correct dilution ratio and soak the glassware in the solution. Use a brittle brush to scrub off materials adhering to the glass gently. The apparatus need to be soaked in a disinfectant solution that has been mixed at a correct dilution ratio again but do not use the solution that you used before, or use an ultrasonic bath. Use deionized water to rinse detergents off the lab glassware. Drain the water from the apparatus by placing them on a rack or a hot air oven, in a clean environment.
These lab items are compatible with the majority of common chemicals that are used in the lab. Acids and water minimally react with glass, but the glass apparatus do not rust when they are exposed in an environment that has moisture, warmth, and oxygen. The reaction between water or acid with glass in minimal because a layer of silica gel is produced and it forms on the surface of the glass to bar further reaction. However, the layer cannot form if the acid in question is hot phosphoric acid and hydrofluoric acid.
