Glassware

Accidents involving glassware are a major cause of laboratory injuries. These can be avoided or reduced by adhering to the following  

Careful handling and storage procedures should be used to avoid damaging glassware. Damaged items should be discarded or repaired by an experienced glassblower. 

Glassblowing operations should not be attempted except at a properly equipped bench, with proper annealing facilities being available. 

Vacuum-jacketed glass apparatus should be handled with extreme care to prevent implosion. Equipment such as Dewar flasks should be taped or shielded. Only glassware designed for vacuum work should be used for that purpose. 

Thick gloves should be worn when picking up pieces of broken glass. Small fragments should be swept up with a brush into a dustpan. 

An entire section devoted to our old friend glassware. There s been a lot of conjecture about glassware, so I hope I can clear things up for you in this regard. 

In a way, the glassware situation is similar to this. But in other ways it is very different. Glassware and guns are both inanimate objects. But glassware is not inherently lethal. Therefore, there is no national restriction to its purchase of any kind But the individual States are another matter. I 

Most States (more than 30) follow the Federal example and allow outright sales ofglassware to anyone. Some (around 12 Ibelieve) require proof of ID and nothing more. The remaining minority of States require the person to apply for a state permit to buy glassware. My state (Texas) happens to be one of those nutty permit States. 

Now don t start freaking out on me. My state happens to be a worst case scenario. You should not expect such exuberant law enforcement in your area. Even if you do, there is a simple remedy for it  

Buy from another state [Picture me thumping my forehead with the palm of my hand. Eyes wide. Mouth slightly agape.] 

Any glass apparatus which has any sort of crack, chip, flaw or even dirty, after careful examination, must be rejected immediately. More so, even a minute hair-line crack in a glassware meant for use in an assembly under an evacuated system are absolutely dangerous and should be discarded promptly. 

It is always desired and recommended that all cleaned glass apparatus not-in-use must not be allowed to accumulate on the working bench but should be stored away safely beneath the bench. 

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All glassware should be scrupulously clean and, for most purposes, dry before being employed in preparative work in the laboratory. It is well to develop the habit of cleaning all glass apparatus immediately after use the nature of the dirt will, in general, be known at the time, and, furthermore, the cleaning process becomes more difficult if the dirty apparatus is allowed to stand for any considerable period, particularly if volatile solvents have evaporated in the meantime. 

These types of businesses are the prime choice a chemist will use to get that specialty chemical or piece of glassware. There are thousands of such places around the nation, Canada and Mexico. 

The best replacement for borosilicate glassware is stainless steel. Stainless steel takes the heat, won t break, and, most importantly, is about as resistant to chemical degradation as the chemist can hope to find. For those items that won t be subjected to direct heat there can be some steel/metal or steel/plastic hybrids. In figure 3 is shown how flasks of any size can be made with two stainless steel mixing bowls welded together. Also shown is the vacuum adaptor and condenser. For the condenser only the inner pipe need be steel. The outside pipe can be copper or something. As for the other components of a distillation set up, well, they are made just as they look. 

Technically, the chemist could avoid the complex glassware apparatus of this procedure for a more crude approach [104]. This report shows some dudes de-methylating an amphetamine with concentrated HCI in a pressure cooker. A similar approach with good yields was also employed in ref. 83 and should work as well or better on guaiacol. Hydroiodic acid or hydrobromic acid will work better than hydrochloric acid but, you know, whatever floats the chemist s boat. To do this the chemist can just plain reflux HI or HBr with the guaiacol for a few hours and process as before or she can use HI, HBr or HCI and place the reactants in a pipe bomb for a few hours. 

To clean the white residue off of your glassware, dump some muriatic acid straight from the jug onto them and swirl. 

Setup your glassware for simple distillation with a claisen adapter, three way adapter, pressure-equalized addition funnel, water cooled condenser, vacuum adapter and receiver flask to catch any condensed solvent vapors. 

General note All reagents and glassware should be dry. The best way to obtain dry THF is to shake the commercial product with machine-powdered KOH (about 70 g/1) and distil the filtered liquid from a small amount of Li A1 Hi,. 

H2C=CH-C=CH-C3h7. All glassware of the distillation apparatus was rinsed AcHi with a dilute solution of diethylamine in diethyl ether. 

Note 1. This addition is to ensure that no traces of acids are present which cause isomerization to H2C=CH-C(0CH3)=CH-C5Hi i. All glassware of the distillation apparatus was therefore rinsed with a dilute solution of... 

Note. 3. All glassware of the distillation apparatus must be rinsed before use with a dilute solution of triethylamine Or another volatile amine in diethyl ether. Traces of acid on the glass walls may cause isomerization to H2C=CH-C(OCH3)=C(CH3)(OC2H5). 

Note 1. The carbinols are sensitive toward acids. All glassware used for the... 

Hate 3. All glassware used for the work-up and distillation must be rinsed with a dilute solution of triethylamine in diethyl ether or acetone in order to be sure that traces of acids on the glass walls have been neutralized. Allenic sulfides with the structure C=C=C(SR)-CH- isomerize under the influence of acids to give conjugated dienes, C=C-C(SR)=C. 

Note S. The glassware used for drying and evaporation of the solvent should be... 

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