The Chemistry of Glassware

Overview:

Chemistry laboratory is not an unvisited place for most of the students. Some of the students love chemistry and those who do not love it sure like the glittering appearance of the laboratory, which comes from the differently shaped and sized chemistry glassware. These equipment of glass may look pretty fragile, but they are worth more than that look. Our today’s life is mostly composed of science. There isn’t a single thing which is not connected to science in some or the other way. The life has advanced to a great extent and to support the current lifestyle, science has contributed a lot. A lot of experiments have taken place to make it possible. And so these simple looking glass articles have played a significant role in life from simple to exquisite. Various researches are taking place in laboratories all over the world. Scientists are using these articles to bring about a new change in human life.

Categories of equipment:

There are many glass equipments in the laboratories, and experts are well aware of their use. They are divided into different categories as per their structure and utility. But the people who are not familiar with these equipments will need a general introduction to these things. There is different glassware, which is very common in the chemistry lab such as, beaker, test tubes, flasks, burettes, bottles, jars, Petri dishes, graduated cylinders, condensers, funnels, pipettes, stirring rods etc. All these equipment are part of some of the other experiments, which take place in this lab. Each glass article is designed in a special way to fulfill a specific purpose and to be used for a special task. The experiments that generally take place in a chemistry lab involve the use of some kind of chemicals. For this purpose, these glass equipment are manufactured by inducing some special qualities, which make them resistant to certain factors and give them strength to work in the controlled conditions of a laboratory. There are various chemicals, which are very reactive and are bound to react with any material; thus these are kept in the glass container, which is less reactive and does not react to most of the chemicals. These glass articles are also heat resistant, which make them suitable for the purpose of heating the content inside them. Some of the glassware is manufactured with for boiling and heating substances. One known illustration of such a thing is the boiling tube, which can be kept directly over the flame.

This glassware is surely simple in look, but is much useful when it comes to necessary and important experiments. Most of the components in the laboratory are stored in these apparatuses. The utility of these apparatuses makes them the basic requirement of every chemistry laboratory. Not only the chemistry laboratory, some of this equipment can also be found in the chemistry set of students.

Lab Glass for better quality experiments

Introduction:

All the operations of the laboratories involve the use of the glassware. Whether complex or simple, every experiment includes the use of some or the other kind of glassware. There are many equipments in the laboratory like beakers, jars, flasks, cylinders, test tubes, etc, which are made of fine glass of high quality. These are very common in the laboratories and are manufactured of the special type of lab glass. These lab glassware does not get affected by the ill effects of the temperature of the concentrated chemicals. This type of glass is resistant to all the limitations that the other materials have. It is completely resistant to the rise and fall of the temperature and protected from the harsh effects of the concentrated chemicals. These equipments do not react to the chemicals making them suitable to be used during experiments involving the use of highly reactive chemicals.

Best material:

The Borosilicate is the best type of glass used in the production of the laboratory glassware. There are lots of types of glass, but all are not used in this process. The other ones, which are used to manufacture good quality glassware, are Silica and Quartz. But these are a special type of glass, which are generally used to manufacture the special glassware, which are used in very special experiments on temperaturs above 700 °C. For the general use of laboratory glassware, the borosilicate glass is used.

Advantages:

There are many advantages that this glass provides when it is used in the laboratory. This is a very popular material in the chemistry lab due to the transparency it provides at the time of the experiments and measuring. The reason this glass is used in the laboratories is the nonreactive nature of this material. There are many chemicals in the laboratories, which are very highly reactive and other materials like metals cannot be used with them as they will react immediately. This nonreactive nature becomes a very important feature when it comes to store the highly reactive chemicals. This is strong and safe material, which makes working in laboratories convenient and protective.

Property of the glass:

· This type of glass is resistant to many ill effects, which other materials can undergo and create damage to the experiment procedure. It is highly resistant to factors like temperature. The highly reactive chemicals can be stored in the apparatuses made of this glass very easily and safely.

· Many of the experiments include the heating of the components for which a strong, but transparent apparatus is required to observe the effect, and for this reason, the borosilicate glass is used. The boiling tubes and ignition tubes are very good examples of this thing.

· Annealing is another process in which this property of the glass comes as an advantage. Annealing is the process in which the various gases are chilled, and for this purpose, the container holding the gases needs strength.

These properties are very necessary to be in the glass used in the laboratory. This good quality glass makes the process of experiment simple and convenient. The chances of errors are reduced considerably if the right kind of apparatus is used.

The utility of Soxhlet Extraction

So what is a Soxhlet apparatus? It is a laboratory equipment or apparatus that has been created for the processing of particular types of solids. The original purpose of this apparatus was to take out or extract the lipid contained in a solid material. Although that was the original inventor with regards to its capabilities, the use is not merely limited to that ability of extracting lipids or fat.

When any solid has a limited ability to dissolve in a solvent and the impurity also will not dissolve in the solvent, which is when a Soxhlet extraction apparatus maybe used. If the compound in questions can be dissolved appreciably in a solvent, then, simple filtering can take out the compound and the insoluble extract.

Complete lipid extraction possible

Generally a solid material that contains a particular compound is placed within a thimble that can be contrived from a filter paper. This is then placed into the primary chamber of the Soxhlet extractor. When heat is applied, the solvent will evaporate into a gaseous state. This gas is, then, cooled with a condenser, which is collected in a sample tube. Over a period of time, the complete lipid contained in the material is removed and the solid is rendered free from any lipid content.

The use of the Soxhlet extractor apparatus is principally used to process certain types of solids. With this device, it is possible to treat a sample for hours and days with the intent of extracting compounds of interest. This is a very useful apparatus used by the chemists in the sampling, analysis, and testing and quality control related process. These are available in a large range of sizes as well as with required accessories.

  
Very high quality apparatus to handle a large range of utility

Like various other glassware equipment meant for the laboratory, the Soxhlet apparatus is also made with special features.

• The glass used in the manufacture of this instrument is designed not to crack when exposed to very high heat or when corrosive created during the extraction process. Every aspect of this apparatus is made with a narrow tolerance so that every aspect provides a high degree of reliability of repeated testing of various functions.
• It is common when the Soxhlet apparatus is used in a repeat of experiments; the same must be washed and dried completely before reuse. This is important, so that any leftover material remaining within it could interfere with the next experiment. Most of the laboratories have their own protocol with regards to cleaning and drying of equipment to arrive at a process that allows for uniform results.

It is with a Soxhlet apparatus that a high degree of efficiency in the extraction process can be achieved, and also, makes it possible for a higher level of control over the materials being tested. When in use, at every cycle of operation, only a portion of the non volatile compound is dissolved in the compound. The advantage of this apparatus is that many portions of the solid are not processed, but a single batch is recycled to get results.