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Laboratory glassware
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Three beakers, an Erlenmeyer flask, a graduated cylinder and a volumetric flask

Brown glass jars with some clear lab glassware in the background
Laboratory glassware refers to a variety of equipment, traditionally made of glass, used for
scientific experiments and other work in science, especially in chemistry and biology
laboratories. Some of the equipment is now made of plastic for cost, ruggedness, and
convenience reasons, but glass is still used for some applications because it is relatively inert,
transparent, more heat-resistant than some plastics up to a point, and relatively easy to
customize. Borosilicate glasses are often used because they are less subject to thermal stress
and are common for reagent bottles. For some applications quartz glass is used for its ability
to withstand high temperatures or its transparency in certain parts of the electromagnetic
spectrum. In other applications, especially some storage bottles, darkened brown or amber
(actinic) glass is used to keep out much of the UV and IR radiation so that the effect of light

on the contents is minimized. Special-purpose materials are also used; for example,
hydrofluoric acid is stored and used in polyethylene containers because it reacts with glass.[1]
For pressurized reaction, heavy-wall glass is used for pressure reactor.

Contents

1 Applications

2 Production

3 Service temperatures

4 Keck clips
o 4.1 Safety when using vacuums

5 Gentle & even heating - baths & alternatives

6 Glassware joints

7 Glassware valves
o 7.1 Stopcock valve
o 7.2 Threaded plug valve

8 Fritted glass

9 Hermetic sealing

10 Cleaning laboratory glassware

11 Gallery

12 Notes

Applications
There are many different kinds of laboratory glassware items, the majority are covered in
separate articles of their own; see the list further below. Such glassware is used for a wide
variety of functions which include volumetric measuring, holding or storing chemicals or
samples, mixing or preparing solutions or other mixtures, containing lab processes like
chemical reactions, heating, cooling, distillation, separations including chromatography,
synthesis, growing biological organisms, spectrophotometry, and containing a full or partial
vacuum, and pressure, like pressure reactor. When in use, laboratory glassware is often held

in place with clamps made for that purpose, which are likewise attached and held in place by
stands or racks. This article covers aspects of laboratory glassware which may be common to
several kinds of glassware and may briefly describe a few glassware items not covered in
other articles.

Production
Most laboratory glassware is now mass-produced, but many large laboratories employ a glass
blower to construct specialized pieces. This construction forms a specialized field of
glassblowing requiring precise control of shape and dimension. In addition to repairing
expensive or difficult-to-replace glassware, scientific glassblowing commonly involves
fusing together various glass partssuch as glass joints and tubing, stopcocks, transition
pieces, and/or other glassware or parts of them to form items of glassware, such as vacuum
manifolds, special reaction flasks, etc.
Various types of joints and stopcocks are available separately and come fused with a length of
glass tubing, which a glassblower may use to fuse to another piece of glassware.

Service temperatures
Borosilicate glass, which makes up the majority of lab glass, may fracture if rapidly heated or
cooled through a 150 C (302 F) temperature gradient. This is particularly true of large
volume flasks, that can take hours to safely warm up. Gentle thermal cycling should be used
when working with volumes more than hundreds of mLs to two liters. Whenever working
with borosilicate glass, it is advisable to avoid sharp transitions between temperatures when
the heating and cooling elements have a high thermal inertia. Glassware can be wrapped with
tinfoil or insulated with wool to smooth out temperature gradients.
500 C (932 F) is the maximum service temperature for borosilicate glass as, at 510 C
(950 F), thermal strain begins to appear in the structures. Operation at this temperature
should be avoided and only intermittent. Bear in mind that glassware under vacuum will also
have around one atmosphere of pressure on its surface before heating and so will be more
likely to fracture as temperature transitions increase. Vacuum operation should be used if the
atmospheric temperatures required are above a few hundred degrees Celsius, as this often has
a dramatic effect on boiling points; significantly lowering them.
Borosilicate anneals at 560 C (1,040 F), this removes built in strain in the glass.
At 820 C (1,510 F), borosilicate glass softens and is likely to deform.[citation needed] And at
1,215 C (2,219 F) it becomes workable.
Quartz glass is far more resilient to thermal shock and can be operated continuously at 1,000
C (1,830 F). Thermal strain appears at 1,120 C (2,050 F), annealing occurs at 1,215 C
(2,219 F) and it becomes workable at 1,685 C (3,065 F).
It is common for students and those new to working with glassware to set hotplates to a high
value initially to rapidly warm a solution or solid. This is not only bad practice, as it can
scorch the contents, it will almost universally burst large flasks, and this is one of the reasons

why large flasks are often heated in water, oil, sand and steam baths or using a mantle that
surrounds most, or all, of the flask.

Keck clips
Keck clips and other clamping methods can be used to hold glassware together.

Safety when using vacuums

An absolute vacuum produces a pressure difference of one atmosphere, approximately 14 psi,
over the surface of the glass. The energy contained within an implosion is defined by the
pressure difference and the volume evacuated. Flask volumes can change by orders of
magnitude between experiments. Whenever working with liter sized or larger flasks, chemists
should consider using a safety screen or the sash of a flow hood to protect them from shards
of glass, should an implosion occur. Glassware can also be wrapped with spirals of tape to
catch shards, or wrapped with webbed mesh more commonly seen on scuba cylinders.
Glass under vacuum becomes more sensitive to chips and scratches in its surface, as these
form strain accumulation points, so older glass is best avoided if possible. Impacts to the
glass and thermally induced stresses are also concerns under vacuum. Round bottom flasks
more effectively spread the stress across their surfaces, and are therefore safer when working
under vacuum.
When connecting glassware, it is often tempting to use Keck clips on every joint, but this can
be dangerous if the system is sealed or the exhaust is in any way restricted; e.g. by wash
flasks or drying media. Many reactions and forms of operation can produce sudden,
unexpected surges of pressure inside the glass. If the system is sealed or restricted, this can
blow the glass apart. It is safer to only clip the joints that need holding together to stop them
falling apart and to purposefully leave one or more unclipped; preferably those that are
connected to lightweight, small objects like stoppers, thermometers or wash heads, that are
pointing vertically upwards and not connected to other items of glassware. By doing so, any
significant surge of pressure will cause these specifically chosen tapers to open and vent. This
may seem counterintuitive, but it is safer and easier to deal with a controlled escape as
opposed to the entire volume being uncontrollably released in an explosion.

Gentle & even heating - baths & alternatives

This is a prerequisite for a lot of laboratory work as it protects the work itself and decreases
the possibility of thermal strain fracturing the glass; see service temperatures for more
information on this.
A common method is to fill a bowl surrounding the flask with water, oil, sand or steam, or to
use a wrap around heating mantle.
However, baths can be extremely dangerous if they spill, overheat or ignite, they have a high
thermal inertia (and so take a long time to cool down) and mantles can be very expensive and
are designed for specific flask volumes. There are two alternative methods that can be used
instead, where appropriate.

When a heat source's minimum temperature is high, the glassware can be suspended slightly
above the surface of the plate. This will not only reduce the ultimate temperature on the glass,
it will slow down the rate of heat exchange and encourage more even heating; as there is no
longer direct contact via a few points with the plate. Doing so works well for low boiling
point operations.
If the glassware must be run at higher temperatures, a teepee setup can be used; so named as
it looks a little like a tipi. This is when the glassware is suspended above the plate, but the
flask is surrounded by a skirt of tinfoil. The skirt should start at the neck of the flask and
drape down to the surface of the plate, not touching the sides of the flask. Having the base of
the skirt cover the majority of the plates surface will effect better heat transfer. The flask will
now be warmed indirectly by the hot air collecting under the skirt but, unlike simply
suspending the glassware, it can now reach hundreds of degrees Celsius and is better
protected from drafts.
Both these methods are useful as they are either cheaper or free, effective, safe and feature
low thermal inertia transfer methods, meaning the chemist does not have to wait for a bath to
cool down after use.
Baths are most useful when the heat source has little or no control over it. With the advent of
variable temperature hotplates and wrap around mantles, their necessity has somewhat
declined. The same can be said for many round bottom flask operations, which require the
use of a bath.

Glassware joints
Main article: Ground glass joint
Ground glass joints are used in laboratories to quickly and easily fit leak-tight apparatus
together from commonly available parts. For example, a round bottom flask, Liebig
condenser, and oil bubbler with ground glass joints may be rapidly fitted together to reflux a
reaction mixture. This is a large improvement compared with older methods of custom-made
glassware, which was time-consuming and expensive, or the use of less chemical resistant
and heat resistant corks or rubber bungs and glass tubes as joints, which took time to prepare
as well.
To connect the hollow inner spaces of the glassware components, ground glass joints are
hollow on the inside and open at the ends, except for stoppers.

Glassware valves

A very common straight bore glass stopcock attached with a plastic plug retainer. This
stopcock is in the side arm of a Schlenk flask.
Describing glassware can be complicated since manufactures provide conflicting names for
glassware. For example ChemGlass calls a glass stopcock what Kontes calls a glass plug.
Despite this it is clear there are two main types of valves used in laboratory glassware, the
stopcock valve and the threaded plug valve. These and other terms used below are defined in
detail since they are bound to conflict with different sources.

Stopcock valve
Stopcocks are often parts of laboratory glassware such as burettes, separatory funnels,
Schlenk flasks, and columns used for column chromatography. The stopcock is a smooth
tampered plug or rotor with a handle, which fits into a corresponding ground glass female
joint. The stationary female joint is designed such that it joins two or more pieces of glass
tubing. The stopcock has holes bored through it which allow the tubes attached to the female
joint to be connected or separated with partial turns of the stopcock. Most stopcocks are solid
pieces with linear bores although some are hollow with holes to simple holes that can line up
the joints tubing. The stopcock is held together with the female joint with a metal spring,
plastic plug retainer, a washer and nut system, or in some cases vacuum. Stopcocks plugs are
generally made out of ground glass or an inert plastic like PTFE. The ground glass stopcocks
are greased to create an airtight seal and prevent the glass from fusing. The plastic stopcocks
are at most lightly oiled.
Stopcocks are generally available individually with some length of glass tubing at the ports so
that they can be joined by a glass blower into custom apparatus at the point of use. This is
especially common for the large glass manifolds used in high vacuum lines.
More examples are featured in the gallery. This is a small sampling of stopcock valves; many
additional variations exist in both plug boring and joint assembly.

Threaded plug valve

A standard solid threaded plug valve with a double O-ring upper seal and PTFE to glass seal
at its base
Threaded plug valves are used significantly in air-sensitive chemistry as well as when a
vessel must be closed completely as in the case of Schlenk bombs. The construction of a
threaded plug valve involves a plug with a threaded cap which are made so that they fit with
the threading on a corresponding piece of female glass. Screwing the plug in part-way first
engages one or more O-rings, made of rubber or plastic, near the plug's base, which seals the
female joint off from the outer atmosphere. Screwing the plug valve all the way in engages
the plug's tip with a beveled constriction in the glass, which provides a second seal. This seal
separates the region beyond the bevel and the O-rings already mentioned.
With solid plugs, a tube or area exists above and below the bevel and turning the plug
controls access. In a number of cases it is convenient to fully remove a plug which can give
access to the region beyond the bevel. Plugs are generally made of an inert plastic such as
PTFE and are attached to a threaded sleeve in such a way that the sleeve can be turned
without spinning the plug. The contact with the bevel is made by an O-ring fitted to the tip of
the plug or by the plug itself. There are a few examples where the plug in made of glass. In
the case of glass plugs, the joint contact is always a rubber O-ring but they are still prone to
shattering.

A thread T-bore plug valve used as a side arm on a Schlenk flask.

Not all plugs are solid. Some plugs are bored with a T-junction. In these systems the plug
extends beyond the threaded sleeve and is designed to form an airtight fitting with glass
tubing or hosing. The shaft of the plug is bored from beyond the threaded sleeve to a Tjunction just before the bevel plug contact. When the plug is fully sealed, the region beyond
the bevel is separated from the plug shaft as well as the bore which leads out of its shaft.
When the plug bevel contact is released, the two regions are exposed to each other. These
valves have also been used as a grease-free alternative to straight bored stopcocks common to
Schlenk flasks. The high symmetry and concise design of these valves has also made them
popular for capping NMR tubes. Such NMR tubes can be heated without the loss of solvent
thanks to the valve's gas-tight seal. NMR tubes with T-bore plugs are widely known as J.
Young NMR tubes, named after the brand name of valves most commonly used for this
purpose. Images of J. Young NMR tubes and a J. Young NMR tube adapter are in the gallery.

Fritted glass

A Bchner funnel with a sintered glass disc

Fritted glass is finely porous glass through which gas or liquid may pass. It is made by
sintering together glass particles into a solid but porous body.[2] This porous glass body can be
called a frit. Applications in laboratory glassware include use in fritted glass filter items,
scrubbers, or spargers. Other laboratory applications of fritted glass include packing in
chromatography columns and resin beds for special chemical synthesis.
In a fritted glass filter, a disc or pane of fritted glass is used to filter out solid particles,
precipitate, or residue from a fluid, similar to a piece of filter paper. The fluid can go through
the pores in the fritted glass, but the frit will often stop a solid from going through. A fritted
filter is often part of a glassware item, so fritted glass funnels and fritted glass crucibles are
available.[3]

Gas-washing bottle
Laboratory scale spargers (also known as gas diffusing stones or diffusors) as well as
scrubbers, and gas-washing bottles (or Drechsel bottles[4]) are similar glassware items which
may use a fritted glass piece fused to the tip of a gas-inlet tube. This fritted glass tip is placed
inside the vessel with liquid inside during use such that the fritted tip is submerged in the
liquid. To maximize surface area contact of the gas to the liquid, a gas stream is slowly blown
into the vessel through the fritted glass tip so that it breaks up the gas into many tiny bubbles.
The purpose of sparging is to saturate the enclosed liquid with the gas, often to displace
another gaseous component. The purpose of a scrubber or gas-washing bottle is to scrub the
gas such that the liquid absorbs one (or more) of the gaseous components to remove it from
the gas stream, effectively purifying the gas stream.
As frits are made up of particles of glass that are bonded together by small contact areas, it is
wise to avoid using them in strongly alkaline conditions, as these can dissolve the glass to
some extent. This is not normally a problem, as the amount dissolved is usually minute, but
the equally minute bonds in a frit can be rotted away, causing the frit to fall apart over time.
As such, consideration should be given to using frits in such solutions and they should be
rapidly and thoroughly rinsed when cleaning the glass with bases like KOH.

Hermetic sealing
Main article: Hermetic sealing
A thin layer of PTFE material or grease is usually applied to the ground-glass surfaces to be
connected, and the inner joint is inserted into the outer joint such that the ground-glass
surfaces of each are next to each other to make the connection. The use of this helps to
provide a good seal and prevents the joint from seizing, allowing the parts to be disassembled
easily.
Sealing allows chemists to easily see when a taper is leaking, as bubbles can usually be seen
flowing through the taper. PTFE tape, bands, and fluoroether-based grease or oils, but not
silicone-based, all emit hydrogen fluoride fumes as they approach and exceed their working

temperature limits, which can occur when using a hotplate, mantle, oil bath or flame. Upon
contact with moisture, including tissue, hydrogen fluoride immediately converts to
hydrofluoric acid, which is highly corrosive and toxic, and requires immediate medical
attention upon exposure.

Cleaning laboratory glassware

There are many different methods of cleaning laboratory glassware. Most of the time, these
methods[5][6] are tried in this order:

The glassware is soaked in a detergent solution to remove grease and loosen most
contamination

Gross contamination and large particles are removed mechanically, by scrubbing with
a brush or scouring pad.
o Alternatively, the first two steps may be combined by sonicating the glassware
in a hot detergent solution

Solvents known to dissolve the contamination are used to rinse the glassware and
remove the last traces

Acetone is often used for a final rinse of sensitive or urgently needed glassware as the
solvent is miscible with water, and helps dilute and wash away remaining water from
the glassware.

Glassware is often dried by suspending it upside down to drip dry on racks; these can
include a hot air fan to blow the internals dry. Another alternative is to place the
glassware under vacuum, lower the boiling points of the remaining volatiles.

If the glassware are still dirty, more drastic methods may be needed. This includes soaking
the piece in a saturated solution of sodium or potassium hydroxide in an alcohol ("base
bath"),[6] followed by a dilute solution of hydrochloric acid ("acid bath") to neutralize the
excess base. Sodium hydroxide cleans glass by dissolving a tiny layer of silica[citation needed], to
give soluble silicates. Care should be taken using strongly alkaline solutions to clean fritted
glassware, as this will degrade the frit over time.
More aggressive methods involving aqua regia (for removing metals from frits), piranha
solution and chromic acid (for removing organics), and hydrofluoric acid baths are generally
considered unsafe for routine use because of possible explosions and the corrosive/toxic
materials involved.[6]
Chromic acid is not a preferred method if the glassware is to be used for the biological
sciences, as chromate ions can implant themselves in the glass and produce anomalous results
when it is subsequently used for cell cultures; to which the ions are toxic. A proprietary
alternative known as NoChromix is available, which is essentially a sachet of largely
ammonium persulfate and a smaller amount of surfactant. This is poured into a bottle of
concentrated sulfuric. Like concentrated hydrogen peroxide, ammonium and sodium
persulfate are strong oxidisers, yet they are not hydroscopic and are more stable. This allows

them to be more easily stored and used. When mixed with concentrated sulfuric, they begin
releasing oxygen, which can oxidise the carbonaceous dehydration products formed from
organic residues by the sulfuric to carbon dioxide; 'burning' them off the glass. The rate of
effervescence is slower than that of strong piranha solution, allowing more time for deposits
to mechanically break up and for the mixture to be used before fully decomposing. This same
method is used in some PCB etching tanks, where sodium persulfate (fine etch crystals) are
combined with sulfuric acid to oxidise the copper surface and then make it water soluble as
its sulfate.[citation needed]

Gallery

A straight bore plastic stopcock without the female joint. Note its washer and nut
system for attaching to its female joint.

A T-bore glass stopcock in a three way assembly. Two of the outlets end in plain hose
adapters while the third ends in a male 14/20 ground glass joint. This stopcock is
attached with an easily removed metal spring.

A double oblique bore glass three-way stopcock.

A single hole hollow glass stopcock held in place by vacuum.


A J. Young NMR tube attached to an adapter with a female 24/40 joint already
greased. Note the hole resulting from the T-bore in the side of the PTFE plug.

A J. Young NMR tube from above looking down the hole that leads to the T-bore.

A Taper Joint Stopper with PTFE Sealing Ring. Optical transparency of the narrow
sealing ring pressured by glass joint (right).

Notes
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Laboratory glassware
1.

^ "Hydrofluoric acid MSDS". J. T. Baker. Retrieved 2007-12-29.

2.

^ "Glass Frit Info". Adams & Chittenden Scientific Glass. Retrieved 2007-1229.

3.
4.
5.

^ Rob Toreki (2004-05-24). "Fritted Funnels". The Glassware Gallery.

Interactive Learning Paradigms, Inc. Retrieved 2007-12-29.
^ http://rsc.org/chemistryworld/Issues/2008/June/DrechselsBottle.asp
^ "Suggestions for Cleaning Laboratory Glassware". Corning. Retrieved
2007-12-29.

6.

^ a b c J. M. McCormick (2006-06-30). "The Grasshopper's Guide to Cleaning

Glassware". Truman State University.
[hide]

Laboratory equipment
Glassware

Beaker

Boston round (bottle)

Bchner funnel

Burette

Cold finger

Condenser

Conical measure

Cuvette

Dean-Stark apparatus

Dropping funnel

Eudiometer

Evaporating dish

Gas syringe

Graduated cylinder

Pipette

Petri dish

Pycnometer

Separatory funnel

Soxhlet extractor

Ostwald viscometer

Watch glass

Bchner

Dewar

Erlenmeyer

Fernbach

Fleaker

Florence

Retort

Round-bottom

Schlenk

Volumetric

Boiling

Ignition

NMR

Test

Thiele

Flasks

Tubes

Thistle

Agar plate

Aspirator

Autoclave

Biosafety cabinet

Bunsen burner

Calorimeter

Chemostat

Colony counter

Colorimeter

Laboratory centrifuge

Crucible

Eyewash

Fire blanket

Fume hood

Glove box

Homogenizer

Hot air oven

Incubator

Laminar flow cabinet

Magnetic stirrer

Other

Meker-Fisher burner

Microscope

Microtiter plate

Picotiter plate

Plate reader

Retort stand

Safety shower

Spectrophotometer

Static mixer

Stir bar

Stirring rod

Stopper

Scoopula

Teclu burner

Thermometer

Vacuum dry box

Vortex mixer

Wash bottle

See also: Instruments used in medical laboratories

Categories:

Laboratory glassware

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